tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-262295912016-10-26T16:23:10.998+00:00Brown Eyed Handsome ManGo Out And Find It...Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.comBlogger121125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26229591.post-71138767371917687302008-12-26T15:38:00.105+00:002009-05-04T12:27:31.501+00:00Pantomime At The Apollo: Sleeping Beauty!, or We Had A Dream!<strong><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/SVdeogXLH2I/AAAAAAAAAVM/9AQtTxeqMWg/s1600-h/apollo.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5284796737717477218" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; float: right; width: 300px; height: 199px;" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/SVdeogXLH2I/AAAAAAAAAVM/9AQtTxeqMWg/s320/apollo.jpg" border="0" /></a>A Merry </strong><strong>Christmas to one and all, and a belated return for Brown Eyed &amp; Handsome Blog! essentially, due to pressures of work and a squeeze on funds for new sounds, it simply became impossible to keep to any kind of a schedule. However, I hope to start afresh with more time set aside for what I want to do - listen to and love the music!</strong><br /><br /><div><div><div><div><strong>We return, as we did last Christmas (see <a href="http://browneyedhandsomeman.blogspot.com/2007/12/barefootin-or-how-cinderella-got-her.html">Barefootin', or How Cinderella Got Her Shoes Back</a>), to the Apollo Theater, where they have decided to create a festive pantomime. For th</strong><strong>ose over the pond who do not know, pantomime is a form of fun theater, where a well-known fairy tale is retold, mixed in with a lot of slapstick and broad satire.</strong></div><br /><div><strong>It seemed a good idea at the time! On with the show!</strong></div><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:180%;">Sleeping Beauty!</span></strong></div><br /><div><strong>The CAST<br /><br />Ole King Coleman, emcee for the Apollo Theater<br />Liberty, a Princess and Beauty<br />Abraham, a kindly old man in a log cabin<br />Jim Crow, our villain and a master of words<br />‘Poor Richard` Pryor, who will open the door!<br />Prince Martin, a hero who has a dream<br />Prince Malcolm, his brother in arms<br />A Bush, a piece of scenery that gets in the way<br />A Fox, who is cunning and a master of </strong><strong>talk<br />Bill and Hillary, an arguing couple<br />The Ice Queen, a witch from Alaska<br />Prince Obama, a hero and everyman<br />A Fashionable Pig, it wears lipstick<br />Judge Pigmeat Markham, here come da judge!</strong></div><br /><div><em>The overture music ends, and our host, King Coleman, walks on stage.</em><br /><br /></div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/SVYYd8KzT6I/AAAAAAAAAU8/KQXIGl4LFwg/s1600-h/king_coleman.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5284438115412561826" style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left; width: 150px; height: 225px;" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/SVYYd8KzT6I/AAAAAAAAAU8/KQXIGl4LFwg/s320/king_coleman.jpg" border="0" /></a>KING COLEMAN: Welcome all to the Apollo,<br />I, Ole King Coleman, say hello.</div><div>The Fairy Godfather has granted your wishes,</div><div>So Please, Please, Please, ladies, prepare your kisses!</div><div>We're gonna make light out of the last election -</div><div>Everybody gets fun poked in their direction.</div><div>The jokes are bad, I mean they just ain't funny.</div><div>But its too late y'all coz I gots your money!</div><div>Everybody can shout out, everybody gets to sing</div><div>Everybody gets to do their thing!<br />So what's the jive you've come to see?<br />Well, we're gonna tell you about a Sleeping Beauty!</div><div>And if you think asleep she's great,</div><div>you should see her when she's awake!</div><br /><div><em>Liberty, a fair lady, has wandered onto the stage. </em></div><br /><div>KING COLEMAN: Well ain't that form just fine;</div><div>if the Prince don't take her, man, she's mine!</div><div>This is the story of a fair lady, Liberty<br />Arriving in a land of the free.<br />She finds that a spell hangs over us<br />A vile and inauspicious curse!<br />One half are chained, while half are free,<br />but the other half this will not see.<br />Others still do not want to know,<br />Thanks to the magic of Jim Crow.<br /><br /><em>Jim Crow appears! Costume by Disney out of Dumbo.</em><br /><br />JIM CROW: I am the villain of this piece,<br />Although think hard upon what hides beneath.<br />For all I does is tell you things,<br />And they listen as I softly sings.<br />Perhaps I am a kind of wizard,<br />That gnaws upon this nation’s gizzard.<br />Jim Crow pecks and caws<br />As I busily rewrite the laws<br />And turn what fools do and says<br />Into ancient inviolable folk ways.</div><br /><div><em>Jim Crow hears Liberty approaching, and hides himself away behind the Bush. Liberty appears, searching for something.</em><br /><br />KING COLEMAN: One day Liberty finds a field in spring<br />Where birds of justice have begun to sing<br />She taps the door of a log cabin,<br />And hastily is welcomed in.</div><br /><div><em>Liberty goes inside the cabin, and Jim Cro</em><em>w appears. An old man in a beard and stove-pipe hat comes out of the cabin.</em><br /><br />KING COLEMAN: The old man come out into the world,<br />He spies Jim Crow, and shoos the bird!<br />ABRAHAM: Go to another door than mine.<br />You can’t fool all the people all the time!<br /><br /><em>Jim Crow pecks at Abraham and begins chasing Abraham away. Liberty enters confused…</em><br /><br />LIBERTY: Has anybody here seen my old friend Abraham? Can you tell me where he’s gone?<br /><br /><em>The audience holler out warnings, "He's behind you!" and Jim Crow appears. He puts Liberty to sleep and begins to gloat on stage. Boos and hisses! King Coleman, on the stage right, comes back on horrified.</em><br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/SVYXUqYsjNI/AAAAAAAAAUk/DyJXg7M3fxc/s1600-h/richard_pryor_01-1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5284436856508550354" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px 10px; float: right; width: 214px; height: 320px;" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/SVYXUqYsjNI/AAAAAAAAAUk/DyJXg7M3fxc/s320/richard_pryor_01-1.jpg" border="0" /></a>KING COLEMAN: Liberty is put to sleep and dreams,<br />That all is not as it here seems,<br />That a better world exists somewhere<br />But time will pass in getting there.</div><div>Another friend Liberty does require<br />And so with that I do retire,<br />And introduce Poor Richard - Pryor!</div><br /><div><em>Richard opens the cabin door and enters the scene, while Jim Crow continues to gloat over sleeping Liberty.</em><br /><br />POOR RICHARD: Good God! Boy, a lot of brothers here today, and some white folks too … come in a bunch didn't y’all? - 'Stick with me, don't worry about a thing.’ Hey, who's this, Big Bird's ugly mother? Hey, where do you think you are?</div><br /><div><em>Jim Crow looks startled.</em></div><br /><div>POOR RICHARD: I may be Poor Richard in this thing, but you are hard of hearing!</div><br /><div>JIM CROW: I'm terribly sorry, but I believe that you are standing in my place.</div><br /><div>POOR RICHARD: Well you ain't standing there right now, motherf*****!</div><br /><div>JIM CROW: Ok, now, that's nice, it's like that is it, ok, you want a piece of this, peckerhead!</div><div><em>He shakes his feathers, menacingly.</em></div><br /><div>POOR RICHARD: I ain't the one standing there dressed like Woody Woodpecker! Come on, shake a tailfeather!</div><br /><div><em>Jim Crow is about to challenge Richard, when he spies two handsome princes appearing. Jim Crow runs for it, and Richard chases him away for now...</em><br /></div><br /><div>KING COLEMAN: Two brothers, Prince Martin and Prince Malcolm, come,<br />And discover Liberty undone. They try to wake her from the curse,<br />But despite their efforts things get worse.<br /><br />PRINCE MALCOLM: What happens to a dream deferred<br />Does it ripen like a raisin in the sun?<br />Or sag like a heavy load?<br />Or does it explode?<br /><br />PRINCE MARTIN: Wait, I think she is giving me a dream.<br />I wonder about what it could mean…<br /><br /><strong>V</strong><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">isions - Stevie Wonder</span></strong><br /></div><div>PRINCE MALCOLM: Then quickly now, here is the hour,<br />Let’s stop Jim Crow and fight the power!<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Fight the Power - Isley Brothers</span></strong><a href="http://www.4shared.com/file/77654099/a75d4d35/12_-_Fight_The_Power__Part_1_.html"><br /></a><br /><em>Jim Crow sneaks up upon the Princes.</em><br /><br />JIM CROW: Like the raven at Poe’s door,<br />I will caw, Nevermore!<br /><br /><em>Prince Martin and Prince Malcolm fight with Jim Crow. But he tricks them both, and they fall to his spells and bullets.</em> <em>The audience are horrified!</em><br /><br />KING COLEMAN: Liberty stirs and looks<br />For the princes whom bullets took.<br /><br />LIBERTY: Has anybody seen my old friends Martin Luther and Malcolm? You know they freed a lot of people, but it seems the good die young.<br /><br /><em>Jim Crow puts Liberty to sleep once more.</em> <em>He laughs and comes to the center stage.</em><br /><br />JIM CROW: Old Abraham used to say this line:<br />“You can fool all of the people some of the time”<br />This has the ring of truth to me<br />But Jim Crow sees things differently.<br />I have set it as my aim to make a very different claim.<br />I put together this daring rhyme,<br />“You CAN fool all the people all of the time.”<br /><br />JIM CROW: I’ll begin to tell people things<br />That make them fear what changes bring,<br />That makes them shun their neighbours hall,<br />And turns them against the victims’ call.<br />I put to sleep your Liberty,<br />So that the powerful should be free,<br />To take your money to give back to you,<br />To bend round lies and make them true!<br /><br /><em>A Bush is placed upon the stage. It does nothing for eight years.</em> <em>Ho ho ho.</em><br /><br />KING COLEMAN: All this is done in a state of hush -<br />Our Jim Crow has hidden in a Bush!<br />Here he hides and he can watch,<br />His words come out of a cunning Fox!<br />In this way none shall know,<br />The dangers of the way they go!<br /><br /><em>Crow and Fox reenact scenes of chaos and mayhem, TV soaps and action movies, in puppet form, from behind the Bush.</em> <em>Richard returns, sees what has happened to Liberty, and watches what Crow and Fox are doing. Then he tears his gaze away in anger.</em></div><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">The Revolution Will Not Be Televised - Gil Scott Heron</span></strong></div><br /><div>POOR RICHARD: One week of truth on TV could just straighten out everything. One hundred and twenty-seven million people watch television every night; that's why they use it to sell stuff. They've misused it a long time so now it's just a business, that's all. They're not going to write shows about how to revolutionize America. The top rated shows are for retarded people.<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:180%;">Act 2: We now tune in to Court TV</span></strong><br /><br />OFFICER OF THE COURT: Hear ye, hear ye, this court is now in session - Judge Pigmeat Markham presidin’!<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Pigmeat Markham - Here come da judge!</span></strong><a href="http://www.4shared.com/file/77653516/642720fe/_Disc_2__18_-_Here_Comes_The_Judge.html"><br /></a><br />POOR RICHARD: They give brothers time like it's lunch down there. You go down there looking for justice, and that's what you find - just us.<br /><br />DEFENDANT: Knock Knock!<br />JUDGE: Who’s there?<br />DEFENDANT: Your neighbor!<br />JUDGE: Not any more, I’m repossessin’ your house!”<br /><br />KING COLEMAN: Jim Crow thinks it would be awful funny,<br />If he were to steal our money!<br />Next of all he cancels our loans,<br />And then he takes away our homes!<br /><br />JUDGE: Who we got here today?<br />OFFICER: There’s a man here, he’s a nudist.<br />JUDGE: How long you been in your house, son?<br />DEFENDANT: Three years, your honour.<br />JUDGE: Three years. And how much of your mortgage have you paid?<br />DEFENDANT: Nine years, your honour.<br />JUDGE: Nine years? Officer, release this man.<br />OFFICER: But sir, he’s a nudist!<br />JUDGE: No he’s not.<br />OFFICER: Yes, sir, he’s a nudist! He‘s isn‘t wearing any pants!<br />JUDGE: No he ain’t. Paying those loans, he can’t afford to buy any pants!<br /><br />JUDGE: Well now comes election time - you’ll vote your way, and I’ll vote mine.<br />This is the time the money gets spent - will they notice it’s the government?<br /><br /><em>Everybody in the cast puts in the vote. Some votes are snatched away by Jim Crow, some are pecked full of extra holes by Jim Crow. Some people can’t get to the voting booth.</em><br /><br />JIM CROW: All these people in such a rush,<br />But one vote in here is worth two in the Bush!<br /><br /><em>He throws a whole bunch of ballot papers into the Bush, which rustles appreciatively.</em><br /><br />JUDGE: Some of the people are getting shifty;<br />But the votes for Liberty are 50:50! 4 MORE YEARS!<br /><br /><em>The audience groan! The cast are reduced to poverty</em></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><p><strong><span style="font-size:180%;">ACT 3: The Prince Appears</span></strong><br /><br />KING COLEMAN: Now the setting of Act Three,<br />The window where lies Liberty -<br />Under the care of fair Hillary…<br />But lo, does now our hero return?<br />From our troubles have we learned?<br /><br /><em>Bill appears, with partygoers in tow.</em><br /><br />BILL: Here I is, Hillary, drunk again! Open the door Hillary!<br /><br /><em>Hillary appears at the window, and shakes her head. She throws a shoe at him to chase him away. Come on, it’s tradition to throw a shoe at a president … I think? Bill slinks off!</em><br /><br />KING COLEMAN: But wait, at last our hero comes,<br />Is he one of Martin or Malcolm’s sons?<br />Here to complete our saga,<br />Comes the young prince Barack Obama!<br /><br />PRINCE OBAMA: Here I is, Hillary, drunk again!<br /><br /><em>He climbs up a precarious ladder to lean to a window…</em><br /><br />PRINCE OBAMA: Open the door Hillary!<br /><em><br />Hillary leans out the window but she shakes her head. Obama waves a letter offering her the Secretary of State post, and she climbs out the window after it. Richard climbs up the ladder and to the window.</em><br /><br />PRINCE OBAMA: Open the door Richard!<br /><strong></strong></p><br /><p><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Jack McVea - Open The Door Richard!<br /></span></strong><br /><em>Richard Pryor tries to let the Prince in, but someone is shooting at him in the backside. It is the Ice Queen!<br /></em><br />POOR RICHARD: What you doing there, Ice Queen? You act like one of them police that ain't never arrested nobody before!<br /><br />KING COLEMAN: But now to interrupt our scene,<br />Rides in the indestructible Snow Queen<br />She can thrill you with icy shivers,<br />And reflect you in her many mirrors.<br />Smiling smiling, she begins to stare,<br />And catches Obama in her glare!<br />The mirror darkly obscures our sight<br />And reflects him in many different lights!<br /><em></em></p><br /><p><em>The prince is frozen by the Ice Queen's spells. Each time she shoots him with her rifle, he is transformed into another costume.</em></p><br /><p>ICE QUEEN: Here is the sinister Hussein,<br />Subverting us for Arab gain!<br />Or is he in reality a Brit,<br />Who should have nothing to do with it!<br />He talks to the poor? Now what is this?<br />He must be some kind of Communist!<br />And to top off all the drama,<br />He stands clothed as dread Osama!<br /><br /><em>Meanwhile, Richard has casually gone into to the house, opened the door, walked outside, stood at the Ice Queen’s shoulder, looked with puzzlement at the scene, and then approaches the Prince.</em><br /><br />POOR RICHARD: Hey man! Say brother! What you doing peeping in them people's window? What's your name boy? Obama? What kind of name is that for a brother? What you mean, your grandma is white? Like my dad, your grandpa must have sure loved the pussy! Where you from fool? Hawaii! Brothers don’t need to go to Hawaii to surf - we got the all over tan going on, leave that to the white dudes to get sunburnt and shit! What? Where’s that, now - Indonesia? Now you don’t know if you wanna be seen with the Reverend Wright or with the Nation of Islam! I know where it is - you ain't the smartest mother in the world, you know!<br /><br /><em>The Ice Queen is about to pounce on the hapless Prince, when Richard stops the action for an announcement.</em> <em>The Prince is able to make an escape.</em><br /><br />POOR RICHARD: For an ice queen, she is kinda hot! Now, ladies and gentlemen, at this trying time, there now will be a short sermon from the one and only Reverend Jeremiah ... James! The Reverend James L Wright! White! James L White! Don't reckon some folks can tell the difference, anyhow!</p><div><em>Richard distracts the Ice Queen and offers to 'guide' her to the Prince...</em></div><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/SVYXg-g6EDI/AAAAAAAAAUs/5Xe_8upt5HM/s1600-h/reverend+white.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5284437068070129714" style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left; width: 320px; height: 233px;" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/SVYXg-g6EDI/AAAAAAAAAUs/5Xe_8upt5HM/s320/reverend+white.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udomqgvsHB4&amp;feature=related"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Richard Pryor - The Reverend James L White's Back To Africa Telethon</span></strong> </a><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/Sf7e6WSCohI/AAAAAAAAAWE/gzNFNtGmcwU/s1600-h/Sarah-Palin-Hunter.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 278px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/Sf7e6WSCohI/AAAAAAAAAWE/gzNFNtGmcwU/s320/Sarah-Palin-Hunter.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5331944102848274962" border="0" /></a><strong><span style="font-size:180%;">Act 3a - The Snowy Wilderness of Alaska</span></strong></p><p><em>The Ice Queen and Richard are searching for the Prince, or anything, to shoot, in the snowy wilds of Alaska.</em><br /></p><br /><p>RICHARD: Illinois, right up ahead, Governor! <em>(To the audience)</em> I know I told her we found Chicago first, but this is too damn cold for any brother!<br /><em></em></p><p><em>They spy something. Could it be her prey?</em><br /></p><p>ICE QUEEN: There he is! Quick Richard, hand me the rifle...<br />RICHARD: The what? <em>(He smirks)</em><br />ICE QUEEN: Now quit playing around. Give me the rifle!<br />RICHARD: I don't have it. I thought you had it. And if you don't, you're screwed.<br />ICE QUEEN: And why is that? He's just a Junior Senator, and I'm a Governor!</p><p>RICHARD: Yeah, but there's a whole lot of Republicans behind you who look like they wanna kill you!<br /><em></em></p><p><em>A mob of enraged Republicans, ravenous and hungry, chase the Ice Queen away, as Richard dusts himself down, and goes to find the Prince once more.</em></p><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:180%;">Act 4: The Ending</span></strong><br /></div><br /><div><em>As the Prince gets to his feet, a crowd of people gather around to help him up. The Prince thanks them and talks to them all.</em></div><br /><div>PRINCE OBAMA: I may be a mystery<br />I have an enchanting history<br />Where am I from, none can tell<br />Which for most voters is just as well!<br />Try to classify me if you can,<br />But I will stand for everyman!<br /><br />KING COLEMAN: What the Ice Queen does not expect,<br />Is her spell to have the opposite effect!</div><div>It does not toe the party line,</div><div>It transforms her into a swine!</div><br /><div><em>The Ice Queen's spells reflect upon her, and she becomes a well-groomed pig.</em><br /><br />PRINCE OBAMA: Through her distortions the people see,<br />What Liberty means to you and me.<br />As they look upon the maiden more,<br />An end they want to hate and war<br />To poverty and repossession,<br />And most of all to the recession!<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Can You Read Between The Lines - Charles Whitehead (Raw Spitt)</span></strong><br /><br /><em>The Republicans try to grab a pile of cash, but the Prince steps forward and takes it from her hands.</em><br /><br />PRINCE OBAMA: Drop that money before it’s too late!<br />Help us all, let the dollar circulate!<br /><br /><em>The Prince throws our money around! Hey, it’s a satire, everybody gets a go!</em><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Billy Paul - Let the Dollar Circulate</span></strong><a href="http://www.4shared.com/file/77654549/1438f193/Let_The_Dollar_Circulate__Philly_1975_.html"><br /></a><br /><em>Liberty begins to awaken.</em><br /><br />LIBERTY: The Ice Queen’s fractures divide us forever,<br />What we must do is come together!<br />Then We The People will finally be -<br />And we will remember:<br />This is our country!<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>We The People - Staple Singers</strong></span><br /><br />PRINCE OBAMA: Sleeping beauty is awoken<br />Now at last is the spell broken?<br />Can we finally give a damn?<br />You know the answer: “Yes We Can!” </div><br /><div><em>Everybody gets to sing!</em><br /><br /><strong>Yes We Can</strong></div><br /><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:180%;">ACT 5: The Epilogue</span></strong><br /><br />RICHARD: I think it's time we heard from our new President!</div><br /><div><em>Cheers! The Prince steps forward, but then Richard pushes the Prince out of the way, ties his tie and puts on his suit jacket.</em></div><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/SVYXvNE03bI/AAAAAAAAAU0/_Rrg4HSOYr0/s1600-h/president+pryor.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5284437312497049010" style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left; width: 320px; height: 218px;" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/SVYXvNE03bI/AAAAAAAAAU0/_Rrg4HSOYr0/s320/president+pryor.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtlDVi_1JMg">Richard Pryor - Conference with the 40th President of the United States</a></span></strong><br /><br /></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div>JUDGE: All is well and done,<br />Now is the time to have some fun<br />The is just one thing that does not jig -<br />Who put lipstick on that pig? </div><br /><div><em>The pig in makeup oinks. It sings to the Prince, a lament of love.</em><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Tina Britt - Hawg for You (Minit 32082 - Hawg For You / My Lover's Prayer – 1969)</span></strong><a href="http://www.4shared.com/file/77653907/321d84d/05_-_Hawg_For_You.html"><br /></a><em>Richard is standing solemnly, worrying about the pig.</em> </div><br /><div>JIM CROW: Hello there, Richard<br />RICHARD: Hi there, Crow<br />JIM CROW: Congratulations on winning that election thing, there<br />RICHARD: Oh, thanks, thanks a lot. Hey, my pig, it’s got lipstick on it!<br />JIM CROW: Oh yeah, sorry about that, won’t happen again. I'll pick somebody else for 2012.<br />RICHARD: I appreciate it.<br />JIM CROW: Just so you know - I will be trying to bite your ass off again tomorrow morning, ok?<br />RICHARD: Well, now then we might have to use Plan B</div><br /><p><strong>KING COLEMAN: And so we end this festive tale, and the moral of it be:</strong></p><p><strong>"What once is told to you in jest, maybe the future you can see!" Pay attention now! </strong></p><strong></strong><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Jokes adapted from Richard Pryor, Pigmeat Markham, Langston Hughes, Open The Door Richard, and Malcolm X. All statements attributed to King Coleman et al are I think all pure invention (didn't spend enough time on research this year, last year I did better!) Happy Holidays!</span></strong></div></div></div></div>Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26229591.post-30368014875027729712009-01-18T10:15:00.006+00:002009-05-04T12:17:49.285+00:00It's A Long Walk To DC, But I'm On My Way<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/SXMGg94t7hI/AAAAAAAAAVo/q9NNop1Br9k/s1600-h/Carl+Winfield+walks+from+Petersburg+to+Washington.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 233px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/SXMGg94t7hI/AAAAAAAAAVo/q9NNop1Br9k/s320/Carl+Winfield+walks+from+Petersburg+to+Washington.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292581150528499218" border="0" /></a>An elderly man wakes up one Monday morning and remembers something he planned to do a long time before. He puts on a winter jacket and a grey cloth cap. Like he used to do, he stops at the hallway mirror, looks at his reflection, and sets the cap at a jaunty angle. That's more like it, he thinks, and chuckles, raising one eyebrow as he recognises the face staring back at him. The one who, with the confidence of a younger man, set out to do this same thing 40 years ago.<br /><br />His children and grandchildren came by yesterday to see off their grandpa. They are not here right now on this cold icy morning as he opens the front door and steps off the porch - but the old man knows that they will be waiting for him somewhere in the center of Petersburg, ready to join him for the first stretch of his journey, and they won't be the only ones. As the journey contines, more and more will join him for a time, and others will converge on his destination by different routes leading from across the nation. This time.<br /><br />The first time, 40 years ago, the journey ended before it began. They were waiting for a good friend, but he couldn't make it. Someone made sure of that. The old man thinks about him for a moment. It is his birthday soon, he'd like that, he muses.<br /><br />The old man takes one last look up at the house, and thinks upon the number on the door. 244 is sure a lot less than 65000, and it's a long walk to DC. But you do it one step at a time, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Carl Winfield</span> reminds himself, like we did all those times before. He steps out onto the frosty sidewalk and the crisp crystals crunch beneath his feet, announcing the first step. At times it feels like he is going to fall, but neighbors are coming out now to see him alright. I'm going to see the President, no matter what it takes, he laughs!<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Staple Singers - Long Walk To DC (Stax 1968)</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">To everybody setting out for Atlanta this Martin Luther King Day</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"> or for Washington for </span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Inauguration Day, I hope that it proves to be an unforgettable moment in your life and the life of your Nation! Happy Birthday Dr King, and Godspeed President Obama!</span><br /></span>Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26229591.post-52539206132361382822008-12-28T16:29:00.015+00:002008-12-31T10:32:18.984+00:00Eartha Kitt 1927-2008: I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar!<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/SVtEys7mEGI/AAAAAAAAAVc/SBXp8DsZCJA/s1600-h/family-dining-room-1968.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5285894225494675554" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 214px" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/SVtEys7mEGI/AAAAAAAAAVc/SBXp8DsZCJA/s320/family-dining-room-1968.jpg" border="0" /></a> In January 1968, <strong>Eartha Kitt</strong> was invited to a luncheon at the White House. The subject was "What Citizens Can Do To Help Ensure Safe Streets." <strong>Lady Bird Johnson</strong>, wife of <strong>President Lyndon Johnson</strong>, was hosting the event.<br /><br /><div>When asked by the First Lady, Eartha Kitt responded: <em>'"You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. They rebel in the streets. They will take pot and they will get high. They don't want to go to school because they're going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam."</em></div><div><br /><br /></div><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/SVtD30yrgcI/AAAAAAAAAVU/Esk-KgpR2SM/s1600-h/kitt.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5285893213992485314" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 252px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/SVtD30yrgcI/AAAAAAAAAVU/Esk-KgpR2SM/s320/kitt.jpg" border="0" /></a>There was a general commotion amongst the fifty ladies present, and comments of shock that Ms Kitt could bring up the subject of the war in such a way. Several ladies spoke to assert their pride that sons and husbands were doing their duty and serving in the armed forces. The group applauded each time, and Eartha stood, arms folded.</div><div> </div><div>Mrs Johnson answered her guest. <em>"Because there is a war on - and I pray that there will be a just and honest peace - that still doesn't give us a free ticket not to try to work for better things such as against crime in the streets, better education, and better health for our people. Crime in the streets is one thing we can solve. I am sorry I can't speak as well or as passionately on conditions of slums as you, because I have not lived there."</em></div><div><br /></div><div>Eartha Kitt, realising that she was in a minority of one in her opinions, but deciding that she had to persist, told Mrs Johnson: <em>"I have to say what's in my heart. I have lived in the gutters."</em></div><div><br /></div><div>The First Lady was reportedly either visibly shaken or on the verge of tears, according to different witnesses. She finally turned to Eartha Kitt and brought the conversation to a close: <em>"I am sorry. I cannot understand the things you do. I have not lived with the background you have."</em></div><div><br />The Johnsons were keenly aware of what needed to be done to change America. They were not like Mr Dalton in 'Native Son', the liberal benefactor who can never understand that his donations to the South Side Boys Club will never change how his own companies refuse access to housing in other areas of Chicago and then overcharge on the rent due to 'high demand'. The Johnsons had tried to do many important things to promote greater equality for black Americans, and the meeting itself was supposed to discuss issues such as housing and employment, at the core of those inequalities. But they were unable to accept in their minds that a war had an impact upon their domestic agenda, despite the 30 billion dollars spent on it in that year that even saw the Defence Department request spending cuts on non-frontline military equipment to compensate. The Great Society was in peril. Which was the greater issue for them? One young woman had asked them.</div><div> </div><div><strong>Eartha Mae Kitt, January 17th 1927 - December 25th 2008<br /></strong></div><div><em><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Events related by Mark Kurlansky in his book "1968", based on reports in TIME magazine, January 26th 1968 and other press coverage. Photos from the White House Museum.</span></strong></em></div>Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26229591.post-66951152020322406612008-01-21T09:01:00.001+00:002008-12-26T15:38:35.460+00:00Happy Birthday!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/R5UrKqbWd0I/AAAAAAAAANM/KmuUe75fn_s/s1600-h/bus12.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5158076410410465090" style="CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/R5UrKqbWd0I/AAAAAAAAANM/KmuUe75fn_s/s320/bus12.jpg" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/R5UpGKbWdyI/AAAAAAAAAM8/n4IXjZaQF_4/s1600-h/MLKwithflag.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5158074134077798178" style="CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/R5UpGKbWdyI/AAAAAAAAAM8/n4IXjZaQF_4/s320/MLKwithflag.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/R5Uoh6bWdxI/AAAAAAAAAM0/_m9hDDTQgGE/s1600-h/king+arrest.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5158073511307540242" style="WIDTH: 373px; CURSOR: pointer; HEIGHT: 262px" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/R5Uoh6bWdxI/AAAAAAAAAM0/_m9hDDTQgGE/s320/king+arrest.JPG" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/R5UmDKbWdvI/AAAAAAAAAMk/AYGxhPrNDXg/s1600-h/MLK.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5158070784003307250" style="MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/R5UmDKbWdvI/AAAAAAAAAMk/AYGxhPrNDXg/s320/MLK.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/R5UoA6bWdwI/AAAAAAAAAMs/aJUcyxNJ16Y/s1600-h/I+have+a+Dream+speech+by+LIFE+1963.bmp"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5158072944371857154" style="MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/R5UoA6bWdwI/AAAAAAAAAMs/aJUcyxNJ16Y/s320/I+have+a+Dream+speech+by+LIFE+1963.bmp" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/R5UqrabWdzI/AAAAAAAAANE/BnGRZ3p7mPU/s1600-h/BWDrMartinLutherKingJrandhi.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5158075873539553074" style="CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/R5UqrabWdzI/AAAAAAAAANE/BnGRZ3p7mPU/s320/BWDrMartinLutherKingJrandhi.gif" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Rev. Martin Luther King Jr - All Here And Now</span></span>Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26229591.post-67867676684398872892008-02-04T20:15:00.001+00:002008-12-26T15:38:10.744+00:00Out Of Time, Out Of Sight: Chris Farlowe Live At The Half Brick!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/R6dzYD7y0NI/AAAAAAAAANc/C8CvU5F6kps/s1600-h/DSCN1890.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5163222355013718226" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/R6dzYD7y0NI/AAAAAAAAANc/C8CvU5F6kps/s320/DSCN1890.JPG" border="0" /></a><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold; FONT-STYLE: italic">Ah, this will stand as one of those great events in my life, and I only hope that the little audio clip will give you some of the flavour of a night in the presence of a British soul legend, Chris Farlowe!</span><br /><br />Accompanied by Blue Eyed Handsome Dad once again, we embarked on a musical journey into British soul history. Dad recalled the last time that he was lucky enough to hear Chris Farlowe sing, which he believes may well have been at The Flamingo Club in Soho in the height of 1966, when Chris was most definitely Number 1 amongst blue-eyed soul artists. He was riding high with his hit Out Of Time on Immediate Records, and Jagger and Richards, not to mention Mike D'Abo could not help but proffer him amazing material to record. This followed an outstanding year 1965 on record, releasing his EPs of soul classics which showcased his roaring and soaring, soul-shaking sound.<br /><br />Well, we set off from the shores of town, west towards the nearby town of Worthing, arriving at a small seafront inn called The Half Brick, renowned for a regular line-up of local blues artists and rock tributes. This was something slightly more important, however. All the more bizarre, then, to discover that the headline act had been shunted into a cramped corner of the bar to make way for a wedding reception in the function room! The bar was absolutely jam packed, and at first we wondered if we would be able to make our way around the corner to view the stage.<br /><br />No matter, we were here because for some they had been there. Blue Eyed Handsome Dad bumped into at least two old friends who remembered the days of modishness and could not resist the pull of Chris Farlowe. We endured the slightly over long set by the support act and watched the man himself, who had been relaxing comfortably at the front, stand up and take his place.<br /><br />The band cranked up, and began to play <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">"Ladies and gentlemen, Stormy Monday Blues!"</span> cries Chris, then stops! ... <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">"Wait a minute! They've forgotten how to bloody play it!"</span> ribbed Chris, abruptly breaking away from the mike to turn and stare at the band. With a smirk he folds his arms and observes the guitarist and bass, as they realise their mistake and try to crawl the chord progression back to the correct key. Well, they make it, and off they go into Chris' first British hit record.<br /><br />A slower and more reflective song next, <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Handbags And Gladrags</span>, his hit from 1969. It was written especially for Chris by Mike D'Abo of Manfred Mann. It touches many in the audience tonight, who reminisce about those years ago. But not to let the maudlin set in, Chris livens thing up again with a defiant gesture against the passing years, <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Never To Old To Rock, Never Too Young To Roll</span>.<br /><br />Fired up by that, how could they but follow Chris as he berates the out of touch and old at heart with the astonishing <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Out Of Time</span>? Well, at least the crowd are keeping up, singing along for all its worth. For some it seems the pace is getting to them: <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">"I said baby, baby, baby .. you're out of tune!"</span>, adlibs Chris at one point, giving the band a worried glance.<br /><br />Chris lets us pick anything we like for the encore, then immediately proceeds to sing exactly what he had prepared anyway, <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Johnny B Goode</span>. Then he finishes with a storming rendition of <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Route 66</span> effortlessly better than Jagger could churn out.<br /><br />I'm only sorry I couldn't share that one with you, but here is a taste of Friday's rendition of Out Of Time to give you a flavour of the night. <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">"We hope you've had a good night, and you feeling alright; we thank you for coming along, hope you enjoyed the song, alright."</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Chris Farlowe - Out Of Time (Live at the Half Brick, Worthing, Friday 1st 2008)<br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">Thanks for a great night organised at the Half Brick by Bob. You can contact the Half Brick for other events at www.thehalfbrick.co.uk</span></span><br /></span></span>Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26229591.post-38687638309148676822007-04-15T15:58:00.000+00:002008-12-11T12:14:33.395+00:001st Anniversary: It Was A Brown Eyed Handsome Man!<a href="http://arted.osu.edu/160/images/50rnr/berry_pf.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://arted.osu.edu/160/images/50rnr/berry_pf.jpg" border="0" /></a> It’s been a whole year since I began this blog, and I only realised this morning! I got a little writer’s block coming up with some more historical posts about soul in Britain, when I thought, why don’t I write about <strong>Chuck Berry's</strong> <strong>Brown Eyed Handsome Man</strong>?<br /><br /><a href="http://www.buddyhollylives.info/mediac/400_0/media/pfd1.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://www.buddyhollylives.info/mediac/400_0/media/pfd1.jpg" border="0" /></a>After deciding to make a blog while not really knowing what it entailed, and discovering that every variation of ‘sweet soul music’ had been taken already, I stayed up all night watching <strong>The Buddy Holly Story</strong> on TV, where they play Buddy’s cover of this song, and in the morning the title still appealed to me. Thinking about the song and its lyrics, it seemed to evoke a lot of things about the significance of black musical forms in America. While being a ‘rock and roll’ song meant it would highlight a broader definition of rhythm and blues, that make more sense outside of the narrow genres in the racks of your local music store.<br /><br />Coded language and social commentary have a long history in music, from the rhythmic patterns and drumbeats of slave songs, through the exodus and salvation imagery of revival songs and spirituals and into gospel music. In the blues, the telling of someone’s troubles in song has revealed something of the conditions of the world around them. Characters like Stag-O-Lee have lived through many decades, informing us through their fictional exploits of the desperate side of life, much in the same way as today’s hip-hop artists continue to do. Jazz followed all of these trends also, using music itself to express it.<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RiJQ0gtQdiI/AAAAAAAAAAM/7US9-HWb6OY/s1600-h/milliondollarquartet.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5053690594926294562" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RiJQ0gtQdiI/AAAAAAAAAAM/7US9-HWb6OY/s200/milliondollarquartet.jpg" border="0" /></a>The emergence of rockabilly and rock and roll highlighted a changing society in which the old divisions and the certainties of the folkways of segregation in America were being challenged and bypassed. In the first of the tracks featured today, you can hear four individuals challenging those changes as they struggle to get to grips with playing Brown Eyed Handsome Man at <strong>Sun Studios</strong> in Memphis in December 4th 1956. <strong>Carl Perkins</strong>, <strong>Elvis Presley</strong>, <strong>Johnny Cash</strong> and <strong>Jerry Lee Lewis</strong>. Four white boys who’d, between them, spent their youths listening to gospel in black churches, learning to play blues guitar from black musicians, grown up picking cotton on mixed farming communes thanks to the New Deal, amongst other influences. <strong>Carl Perkins</strong>, always shy and thoughtful, and a little unsure of his true talent, is clearly awestruck, as they all are, as they ponder the complexity and the wit of the lyrics, and while Elvis struggles to keep the words in rhythm. Finally, he confides earnestly to the others:<br /><br /><em>“You oughta hear some of this stuff sitting around, boy”,</em> says Carl Perkins.<em> “I’ve just come offa a tour with this guy, Chuck Berry. Man, he sat down behind the stage and just … man, I ain’t no good!”<br /></em><br /><strong>Chuck Berry</strong> creates a series of entertaining, racy tale of the allure of brown-eyed handsome men and their exploits, and puts his penchant for suggestiveness to good use by this time exhorting the women to seek them out, while he of course plays the role. The race of the character is never made explicit, but is inferred by the distinctive choice of brown eyes, as opposed to the very popular ‘blue eyes’ of dozens of popular crooners’ tunes. There lies the element of social danger that was implicit in all rock and roll performed by black artists, sexual desire between races. <strong>Little Richard</strong> for example was overt about courting publicly women of all races. Chuck is going further than this, however, in his lyrics. He subverts the dominant assumptions of the era that white women were chaste, unwilling victims of ‘miscegenation’ by threading the song with the line, <em>“Her mother told her daughter go out and find yourself …”</em> The suggestion is that the sexual colour line was never as rigid as society’s elders wanted it to appear. Chuck tells us <em>“Way back in history three thousand years, Back ever since the world began.”</em> In the realm of individual relations, the reality defied the constructs of social stricture.<br /><br /><strong>Roy Kasten</strong>, writing last year at the <strong>Living In Stereo</strong> blog, made a detailed appreciation of the lyrical talent of Chuck Berry, and said:<br /><br /><em>“Berry turned the sound of a sub-culture into a universal lingo and made three minute dance numbers into comprehensive portraits of life.”</em><br /><br />How did the song story originate? According to some sources, the first verse was inspired by Berry observing a West Coast policeman trying to arrest a Hispanic man for loitering until a girl talked him out of the arrest. The second verse is alleged to be inspired by images in the sadomasochistic novel Venus In Furs. Meanwhile, in the final verse, Chuck Berry is said to celebrate the baseball player <strong>Jackie Robinson</strong>, though again, some claim that he is talking about <strong>Larry Doby</strong>, first African-American player in the American League. It is the one verse where a brown eyed handsome man is shown beyond the arena of sexuality, beating the odds and winning the game, and is an image of power. <a href="http://accel14.mettre-put-idata.over-blog.com/0/00/35/40/portraits2/nina-simone.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 200px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://accel14.mettre-put-idata.over-blog.com/0/00/35/40/portraits2/nina-simone.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br />It’s a brilliantly written tale, and elements of its lyrical techniques have influenced others such as Van Morrison with his Brown Eyed Girl. Meanwhile, in the hands of other singers, such as <strong>Nina Simone</strong> and <strong>Fontella Bass</strong>, the song gets a different treatment, as when sung from a black female perspective in the black power era, it took on connotations of a call to support black men. While this was never the original intention of the song, it certainly adds something interesting, especially since the underlying causes of alienation of black men in American society have not been addressed and have merely become worse over the decades.<br /><br />Eventually, I imagine, Elvis got the hang of the lyrics.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>Arrested on charges of unemployment,</em><br /></span><div><div><div><div><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;">he was sitting in the witness stand</span></em></div><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;">The judge's wife called up the district attorney</span></em></div><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;">Said you free that brown eyed man</span></em></div><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;">You want your job you better free that brown eyed man</span></em></div><br /><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></em></div><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;">Flying across the desert in a TWA,</span></em></div><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;">I saw a woman walking across the sand</span></em></div><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;">She been a-walkin' thirty miles en route to Bombay.</span></em></div><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;">To get a brown eyed handsome man</span></em></div><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;">Her destination was a brown eyed handsome man</span></em></div><br /><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></em></div><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;">Way back in history three thousand years</span></em></div><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;">Back every since the world began</span></em></div><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;">There's been a whole lot of good women shed a tear</span></em></div><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;">For a brown eyed handsome man</span></em></div><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;">That's what the trouble was brown eyed handsome man</span></em></div><br /><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></em></div><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;">Beautiful daughter couldn't make up her mind</span></em></div><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;">Between a doctor and a lawyer man</span></em></div><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;">Her mother told her daughter go out and find yourself</span></em></div><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;">A brown eyed handsome man</span></em></div><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;">That's what your daddy is a brown eyed handsome man</span></em></div><br /><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></em></div><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;">Milo Venus was a beautiful lass</span></em></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>She had the world in the palm of her hand</em><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>But she lost both her arms in a wrestling match</em><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>To get brown eyed handsome man</em><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>She fought and won herself a brown eyed handsome man</em><br /></span></div><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;"></span></em></div><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;">Two, three count with nobody on</span></em></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>He hit a high fly into the stand</em><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>Rounding third he was headed for home</em><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size:85%;"><em>It was a brown eyed handsome man</em><br /></span></div><div><em><span style="font-size:85%;">That won the game; it was a brown eyed handsome man</span></em><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">The Million Dollar Quartet – Brown Eyed Handsome Man (Rehearsal Outtake) (Sun Records) Dec 4th 1956<br /><br />Chuck Berry – Brown Eyed Handsome Man (1956)<br /><br />Buddy Holly – Brown Eyed Handsome Man (released 1963)<br /><br />Nina Simone – Brown Eyed Handsome Man (High Priestess of Soul LP, New York 1966)</span></strong><a href="http://www.savefile.com/files/642667"><br /></a><br /><strong>Thanks To Living In Stereo blog for giving me some inspiration for this post, and they are always worth a read for descriptive and thoughtful appreciations of music. Read their Chuck Berry posts starting here. Also interesting is this account by Dave Marsh of the story of Johnny B Goode and the way society affected its lyrics: </strong><strong><a href="http://www.lexjansen.com/cgi-bin/marsh_xml.php?fn=2">http://www.lexjansen.com/cgi-bin/marsh_xml.php?fn=2</a></strong></div></div></div></div></div>Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26229591.post-51866275659522252732007-05-25T18:54:00.000+00:002008-12-11T12:14:32.949+00:00Soul Britannia: It's All Over Now...<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RlHQ28VDJdI/AAAAAAAAAAU/XUw6N5uW4Vo/s1600-h/stones63.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5067060698094446034" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RlHQ28VDJdI/AAAAAAAAAAU/XUw6N5uW4Vo/s320/stones63.jpg" border="0" /></a>It was their most intimidating audience to date.<br /><br />As they entered the <strong>Co-Op Ballroom</strong> in Nuneaton, <strong>Mick Jagger</strong>, <strong>Keith Richards</strong>, <strong>Charlie Watts</strong>, <strong>Brian Jones</strong>, <strong>Bill Wyman</strong> and <strong>Ian Stewart</strong> did not know what to expect. Tension was high. They set up, were introduced, and began to play their brand of rhythm and blues...<br /><br />The audience, mostly children from the age of 4 to 10, were not impressed, and proceeded to pummel the Rolling Stones continuously with cream cakes until they left the stage.<br /><br /><div><em>"They did not appreciate r&b"</em>, said Bill Wyman sadly, looking back on that ordeal.</div><br /><br /><div>For the fledgeling r&amp;b band, success and recognition was not coming easy. It was all very well to play at <strong>The Marquee</strong> on the nights when <strong>Blues Incorporated</strong> were unavailable, but other venues and appreciative audiences were still very thin on the ground.<br /><br />But, in 1963, while the Stones searched for gigs and practiced being jammy dodgers, the r&b scene that had grown around the clubs of London was now spreading. <strong>The Ealing Club</strong> grew from 100 members the first week to 200 memebers the next, to over 800 by the end of 1962, some having wandered to its doors in search of the blues from as far away as Scotland. By 1964, most of the clubs of Wardour Street and West London had gone over to featuring r&amp;b over modern jazz. The Stones finally found a home away from the Marquee, this time in Richmond, at the <strong><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crawdaddy">Crawdaddy Club</a></strong>. Richmond could boast a number of other venues turning to r&b, such as the <strong>Eel Pie Hotel, The Station Hotel, The Imperial</strong>, and <strong>L’Auberge</strong>. Approximately 10,000 people were likely to enter the doors of these London clubs alone in a typical week to pick up the r&amp;b sounds.<br /><br />And the trend had spread outside the capital. By late 1963, rhythm & blues clubs were forming all over: from <strong>St Andrew's Hall</strong> in Norwich, the <strong>Olympia</strong> in Reading, the <strong>R&amp;B Club</strong> in Andover, the <strong>Rhythm & Blues Club</strong> at the Maritime Hotel in Belfast, and the <strong>Downbeat Club</strong> and <strong>Club A-G0-Go</strong> in Newcastle, to the <strong>Starlight Rooms</strong> in Brighton. It must be said, however, that while now these clubs were bringing r&amp;b closer to British youth, they are all situated in ports, near American bases or close to London.<br /><br />Rhythm and blues was going to be the new musical wave, then, after all. It had not been inevitable, or even likely. But for a number of reasons, r&b now appealed. It is often suggested that this was simply because Britain was still haunted by the spectre of World War II, and had a yearning for the trappings of America. Yet as my dad told me recently, there had been a number of reasons why rock and roll had become adulterated and tamed in its British version by the early 60s: </div><br /><div><em>"You have to remember, for a lot of people, even young people, rock and roll had been connected with the Teds. Many ordinary people thought they were violent, dangerous thugs. They were outcasts, troublemakers from the working class [so people assumed]... So a lot of people wanted nothing to do with anything these troublemakers enjoyed. In any given week, at least half of the Hit parade would be filled up with ballads and popular tunes by people like Alma Cogan. That's what most people wanted to hear, right up to the mid Sixties."</em></div><br /><div>In fact, Britain benefitted from a veneer of prosperity and more spending power in people's pocket, largely due to the removal of rationing and a series of canny devaluations by the MacMillan government during the late 50s. More and more young people were growing up into a comfortable suburban life that had cultural, educational and creative advantages. There was more money for instruments, more opportunity to enjoy the nightlife, the chance for free university education and growing enrollment at art schools. Here, a relatively small number of young people were introduced to jazz and then the blues, and had a chance to play and experiment. So affluence, leisure time and money in pockets was making it possible to adopt new American trends, after a fashion, in a way that had never truly happened in Britain before.<br /><br />Some have said that in fact it was easier for British youth to take up r&amp;b than it was for their contemporary white Americans. This is perhaps an oversimplification, as it ignores the way southern soul in particular was formed interracially in Memphis and Muscle Shoals, to name but two examples. However, naively obsessed with all things American, with access to far fewer media accounts of the realities of American society, British youth were far happier than white Americans to simply accept that jazz, blues and r&b was at the heart of 'American' music. The main objection to r&amp;b in Britain was its noisiness, young people's unprofessional musicianship and the length and cleanliness of the bands' hair.<br /><br />Was the music that they made r&b? It was certainly different to the rhythm &amp; blues Americans were used to, They couldn't play as well, they couldn't sing at all American, and they had nobody to refer to except for the twenty or so records they had in their bedroom. They had grown up with very different influences to their black American heroes, from skiffle, to old folk ballads, to music hall songs, and these influences naturally permeated the songs that they began to write for themselves. So ultimately, British r&b changed into something unlike its beginnings, and took a course far removed from the course of black American music in the late 60s and 70s. But it was inspired by and dedicated to the seven-inch pieces of vinyl they had listened to note for note in those early years...</div><br /><div></div><div></div>SO, who was playing this r&amp;b hybrid? Time for some more music posts!<br /><br /><div><strong><em>Information quoted from the chapter 'Enter The Stones' in 'White Heat: A History of Britain in the Swinging Sixtes' by Dominic Sandbrook, and 'Mod: A Very British Phenomenon' by Terry Rawlings. Blue Eyed Handsome Dad helped with some memories also!</em></strong></div><div><strong><em></em></strong></div><div></div><div><strong>NOTE TO READERS: Tomorrow I am starting to move house. So I have to wait for a few days to get my internet reconnected in the new flat. So I apologise in advance if there is a delay in posting more stuff next week. Of course, since I usually get sidetracked and delayed anyway, you may not notice any difference to the usual poor service ! :)</strong></div>Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26229591.post-73970632451998142392007-06-09T16:20:00.000+00:002008-12-11T12:14:32.694+00:00Hammer And Nails: The Staples Singers Make This House A Home...<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RmrEkwd_k2I/AAAAAAAAAAk/Oms679RJTXo/s1600-h/hammer+&+nails.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5074084065951322978" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RmrEkwd_k2I/AAAAAAAAAAk/Oms679RJTXo/s320/hammer+%26+nails.jpg" border="0" /></a> <em>I have just bought my first flat, and I have been busy in the last week packing, moving house, painting and decorating! Ma cherie amour et moi are very happy, and not a little exhausted! Finally, today, my internet was reconnected ...</em><br /><br />Naturally, this gives me an opportunity to ramble on about <strong>The Staple Singers</strong> and to play for you the title song from <strong>Hammer And Nails</strong>, an album of gospel recorded for the renowned jazz label <strong>Riverside Records</strong> in 1962. It's taken me quite a while to record this onto my computer, since there was a slight nick on the surface that sticks once in a while. There were tears as I blamed myself for this crime against vinyl, but now I have secured a copy of the single, so enjoy!<br /><br />By this time, the Staples family were already a well-established gospel group who had performed together for nearly 15 years, since <strong>Roebuck Staples,</strong> born on December 28, 1915 in Winona, Mississippi, decided to form a family gospel group in 1948, incorporating his bluesy guitar style. His elder daughter <strong>Cleotha</strong>, younger daughter <strong>Mavis</strong>, and son <strong>Pervis Staples</strong> took their places sharing the vocals with their father.<br /><br />Before that time, Roebuck and his wife <strong>Oceola</strong> had moved from Mississippi to Chicago during the Depression, and had worked in steel mills and meat-packing plants to support the family. The musical talent of the children encouraged Roebuck to start performing in the local Chicago churches, and by the early 50s, they made the choice to become full-time gospel singers, touring churches across the country. In 1957, they signed with <strong>Vee Jay</strong> and recorded <strong>Uncloudy Day</strong>, and it became a nationwide gospel hit. Others followed, including <strong>Will the Circle Be Unbroken</strong>, <strong>Help Me, Jesus</strong>, and <strong>Swing Down Chariot (Let Me Ride)</strong>. The greater exposure led to more bookings touring college campuses, concert halls and music festivals:<br /><br /><em>"Everywhere they go they generate a unique kind of soul-to-soul enthusiasm and give every type of audience a deep emotional thrill."<strong> -Gary Kramer</strong></em><br /><br />Distinguishing the Staple Singers from other gospel groups was their adherence to a southern gospel style, rather than follow the more polished modern vocal harmony groups. This was exactly the kind of gospel sound that most appealed to the growing white audience interested in the 'authentic' American folk tradition. Looking to expand the label, <strong>Riverside Records</strong> signed The Staple Singers. <strong>Orrin Keepnews</strong>, who supervised the Staple Singers sessions, had made his name in the jazz world by signing <strong>Thelonius Monk</strong> and recording him on a series of seminal albums. In April 4th 1964, the Staple Singers would be performing Hammer And Nails on TV's <strong>Hootenanny</strong>, recorded for that show at the Purdue University, West Lafayette, in Indiana, alongside <strong>The New Christy Minstrels</strong> and irish harpist <strong>Deidre O'Callaghan.</strong><br /><br />The period at Riverside would be shortlived. Orrin left the business side to his old friend and partner <strong>Bill Grauer</strong>. In 1963, Grauer died suddenly, and Riverside went into bankruptcy in 1964. The Staples moved on to the <strong>Epic</strong> label. Here they would take their exposure to the world of folk and protest song and use it to record songs that mixed gospel with themes of the civil rights movement.<br /><div><br />In 1968 when The Staples signed with soul music label <strong>Stax Records</strong>, they would suffer a certain amount of criticism for this in gospel circles. Yet, musically, the only difference was that the popular music coming out of Memphis was simply taking more of its own influences from the same traditional gospel sources that the Staple Singers had always drawn from. Nor do their message songs exactly abandon their gospel message completely.<br /><br />On this, the title song from the Hammer & Nails album, which was also a single, contralto Mavis sings a powerful vocal line, using the lines 'More, more more...' to drive the beat forwards and pushing harder and harder up to a crescendo in each chorus that evokes an ecstatic feeling. This version of the song is a very different one to the more widely available recording found on their greatest hits CDs. Inexplicably, Hammer &amp; Nails is the only Riverside track that is not featured on their 'complete' Riverside Recordings CD.<br /><br />Another interesting fact: throughout the liner notes to this album in 1962, Roebuck is referred to as 'Daddy' Staples. When did he pick up his more familiar monicker of 'Pops'?</div><br /><div></div><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">The Staple Singers - Hammer & Nails (Riverside R-4518, from LP Hammer &amp; Nails 3501)</span></strong><br /><br /><strong><em>Information garnered from Rob Bowman's summary of the Staple Singers career, info from <a href="http://www.rosebudus.com/staples/TheBestOf.html">The Rosebud Agency</a>, and liner notes by Gary Kramer.</em></strong></div>Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26229591.post-74572839445612051022007-06-15T18:00:00.000+00:002008-12-11T12:14:32.563+00:00It's Like Carrying Soul To Newcastle: At The Club-A-Go-Go<a href="http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Vine/7708/images/vin1b.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand" alt="The Pagans celebrate a gig at Newcastle Empire Theatre" src="http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Vine/7708/images/vin1b.jpg" border="0" /></a>Not all the elements of British r&b were developed within the confines of West London.<br /><br /><div><strong>Eric Burdon</strong> grew up in Newcastle, a hard-working, coal-mining region that prided itself on the quality of its colliery brass bands. Of course Eric's family did not have any connection with coal-mining as such. Eric did however enjoy listening to dixieland-era jazz which some colliery band trained musicians enjoyed, and in his youth he tried to play some trumpet, which set him apart from many other British r&amp;b musicians of the 1960s, in that he had experience of horn parts. However, like many of his contemporaries, the influence of Chicago blues, and practicality, led Eric sing and to use the harmonica. Not the least of these considerations was that Eric never learnt to play guitar!<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>During his teens, he happened to pass by a black gospel church in his home town, and was mesmerised by the singing he heard within. Such an experience was exceedingly rare in late 50s and early 60s Britain. There was a growing modernising trend amongst theologians in the Church of England, but it was more aimed towards developing a more rational and scientific response to issues of society. While this appealed to the overwhelmingly areligious population of Britain, who freely admitted to visiting a church only for Christmas, weddings and Christenings, amongst the 10% of regular churchgoers, the traditional service prevailed. For the more evangelical, services were experimenting with personal readings, testimonials, and new hymns based upon British folk music. But an evangelical service in Britain had little in common with the black Baptist church experience in the USA.</div><div><br /></div><div>Eric's epiphany had been musical and in a way political. He began to seek out the music of Mississippi and Chicago blues. He once explained what had appealed to him so much living far from the American South in a northern British city:</div><div></div><div><em>"If I heard John Lee Hooker singing things like, 'I been working in a steel mill trucking steel like a slave all day, I woke up this morning and my baby 's gone away' I related to that directly because that was happening to grown men on my street."</em></div><div></div><br />While many members of British r&b bands had benefitted from attending the new art schools, Eric and much of the mod scene had their roots in working-class communities. R&amp;b was not treated as an exercise in historical preservation in Britain, at least at that time. It resonated with their lives on some level.<br /><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Vine/7708/images/vin4a.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand" alt="The Pagans in rehearsal in 1962" src="http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Vine/7708/images/vin4a.jpg" border="0" /></a>Eric and <strong>Philip Payne</strong> began a band called <strong>The Pagans</strong>, and performed on the Newcastle clubs. Here Eric encoutered both a kindred spirit and bitter rival in the guise of <strong>Alan Price.</strong> Over a period of months, the members of the Alan Price Trio, including <strong>Bryan</strong> '<strong>Chas' Chandler</strong> (later to play bass and manage The Jimi Hendrix Experience), would come to merge with Eric's band, to form the Alan Price R&B Combo, also featuring <strong>Hilton Valentine</strong> of The Wild Cats on guitar. No two members of the original band can agree on exactly who's idea it was, or who joined whose band! All recognised each others talents, while also becoming deeply suspicious of each other's position in the band. On stage, they transmuted their mutual animosities into a raucous performance. Soon they adopted a more appropriate name, <strong>The Animals</strong>.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RmqnQgd_k1I/AAAAAAAAAAc/SMGNSHeJpBE/s1600-h/sonnyboyii1963.bmp"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5074051832221766482" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="Sonny Boy Williamson II" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RmqnQgd_k1I/AAAAAAAAAAc/SMGNSHeJpBE/s320/sonnyboyii1963.bmp" border="0" /></a>In the Summer of 1963, <strong>The American Folk Blues Festival</strong> arrived in London. Amongst the invited performers was the mysterious <strong>Sonny Boy Williamson II</strong>. The harmonica player <strong>Alex 'Rice' Miller</strong>, protege of the legendary Robert Johnson, the only one to know the true details of Johnson's death, and who had later adopted the name of the original Sonny Boy Williamson, also a harmonica player, for himself, enjoyed the experience, and was fêted by a number of members of the young r&b scene, amongst them <strong>The Yardbirds</strong> , <strong>the Stones</strong> and <strong>The Animals</strong>. He began to tour the r&amp;b clubs fronting these bands at a series of gigs, some of which were recorded. On December 30th, 1963, Sonny Boy Williamson and the Animals came to the Club A-Go-Go back in Newcastle, and recorded the performance. Recording was overseen by Giorgio Gomelsky. Still, some are not easily impressed:</div><div><br /></div><div><em>"Truthfully, these live shows are more historically interesting than anything else, being merely passable bar band blues"</em> - Steve Leggett All Music Guide</div><div><br /></div><div></div><div><em>"Ah, knickers!"</em>, as Eric exclaims at the very end of the night, after thanking Sonny Boy and thanking the audience for supporting them. There had never been a passable bar blues band before it in the history of Newcastle! Now, a bunch of eager teenagers and their friends in a northern city were working with and learning from a legendary, experienced Delta bluesman, and it undoubtedly improved both their technique and their confidence. That went for the other groups Sonny Boy jammed with that year. When The Rolling Stones made their assault upon America, they made a point of requesting that Sonny Boy Williamson was also booked to appear alongside them on TV, as a mark of their respect. </div><div><br /></div><div>Here are some tracks from that recording at the Club A-Go-Go, plus The Animals' own homage to the venue that had nurtured them, which was the b-side to the fantastic <strong>Please, Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood</strong>.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Sonny Boy Williamson & The Animals - Night Time Is The Right Time (From Charley LP The Animals &amp; Sonny Boy Williamson 1977, recorded December 30th 1963 at Club A-Go-Go Newcastle-upon-Tyne)</span></strong></div><div><br /></div><div></div><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Sonny Boy Williamson & The Animals - Bye Bye, Sonny, Bye Bye (from Charley LP The Animals &amp; Sonny Boy Williamson 1977)</span></strong><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">The Animals - Club A-Go-Go (b-side of Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood Jan 1965)</span></strong></div><div><br /></div><div><strong><em>Its definitely worth visiting </em></strong><a href="http://members.aol.com/TheAnimalsSite/"><strong><em>The Animals Official Website</em></strong></a><strong><em> , run by original guitarist <span style="font-size:130%;">Hilton Valentine</span>, if you want an introduction to their music. Lots of sound clips are available to sample. Photos of The Pagans are property of <span style="font-size:130%;">Philip Payne</span>, and can be found at <a href="http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Vine/7708/home.html">This Book Of Burdon</a> by Aimee Harrison. Listen to and buy more clips of the 1963 concert on </em></strong><a href="http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=157294284&amp;s=143444"><strong><em>itunes</em></strong></a><strong><em>! Quotes from Steve Leggett at All Music Guide, and from A Change Is Gonna Come by Craig Werner.</em></strong></div>Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26229591.post-19759536546204859962007-06-20T19:58:00.000+00:002008-12-11T12:14:32.424+00:00Juneteenth Jamboree: Gladys Bentley & Louis Jordan<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RnmT3Ad_k6I/AAAAAAAAABE/jSHGrBhe_GA/s1600-h/BentleyTopHat.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5078252628064834466" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RnmT3Ad_k6I/AAAAAAAAABE/jSHGrBhe_GA/s320/BentleyTopHat.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><strong>Happy Juneteenth!</strong><br /><br />A little late this year, after another week of overworking, but its time for some <strong>Juneteenth</strong> celebrating! Last year, I did a post going into the history of Juneteenth. You can find that by clciking on the Juneteenth link at the bottom of this post, and it has links to some other interesting websites related to Juneteenth.<br /><br /><div><div><div>This time, I am briefly going to introduce two pieces of Juneteenth blues that I came across while reading <a href="http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977022750"><strong>Music You Never Forget: The Juneteenth Jamboree</strong></a> by <strong>Fred Bals</strong>. The article introduced me to the life and career of <strong>Gladys Bentley.</strong> She was a well-known singer in Harlem in the 1920s and 1930s, headlining at such infamous venues as as <strong>The Clam House</strong> and the <strong>Ubangi Club</strong>, before moving to California, where she performed until her death in 1960.<br /></div><div><em>"Perhaps the most famous gay-oriented club of the era was Harry Hansberry's Clam House, a narrow, smoky speakeasy on 133rd Street. The Clam House featured </em><a href="http://members.tripod.com/~laurencefrommer/celebrity/celebrity2bentley.html" target="http://members.tripod.com/~laurencefrommer/celebrity/celebrity2bentley.html"><em>Gladys Bentley</em></a><em>, a 250-pound, masculine, darkskinned lesbian, who performed all night long in a white tuxedo and top hat. Bentley, a talented pianist with a magnificent, growling voice, was celebrated for inventing obscene lyrics to popular contemporary melodies. <strong>Langston Hughes</strong> called her 'an amazing exhibition of musical energy.'"</em></div><br /><div><em>- Quote from Hidden from History : Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past by Eric Garber.</em><br /></div><br /><div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RnmThgd_k5I/AAAAAAAAAA8/uTj2nOWaGa4/s1600-h/louisjordan-beware1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5078252258697646994" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RnmThgd_k5I/AAAAAAAAAA8/uTj2nOWaGa4/s200/louisjordan-beware1.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RnmOxwd_k4I/AAAAAAAAAA0/_rJIW6Ni5Ko/s1600-h/louisjordan.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5078247040312382338" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RnmOxwd_k4I/AAAAAAAAAA0/_rJIW6Ni5Ko/s320/louisjordan.jpg" border="0" /></a>Next, in full this time, is the song as recorded by 'King of the Jukebox' <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000001NLS/fredbals-20"><strong>Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five</strong></a> in 1940 for the Decca label. The song was, and still is, mislabeled as "<strong>June Tenth Jamboree</strong>," apparently because no one at Decca knew what Juneteenth was. Not a fate Louis Jordan himself would have to worry about. Jordan was a highly popular musician with both black and white<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvktikuO3kc"></a> audiences, one of the first"crossover" artists, having at least four million-selling hits during his career. He also performed comedy and acted in many films, while also starring in two of his own. Many r&b artists look upon him as a pivotal figure in the emergence of r&amp;b.</div><br /><div>Two artists, who despite the prevailing prejudices against race and sex, forged their own careers on their own terms!</div><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Gladys Bentley - Juneteenth Jamboree (excerpt)</span></strong><br /><br /></div><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Louis Jordan &amp; His Tympany Five - 'June Tenth' Jamboree (Decca 1940)</span></strong></div></div></div>Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26229591.post-22969243943795581292007-07-03T07:10:00.000+00:002008-12-11T12:14:31.821+00:00Get It If You Want It: Win A Free Al Green & Candi Staton Ticket!<a href="http://www.bmi.com/images/musicworld/g/green_a_1_500.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://www.bmi.com/images/musicworld/g/green_a_1_500.jpg" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.capitalentertainment.com/CandiStaton.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://www.capitalentertainment.com/CandiStaton.jpg" border="0" /></a>Time to get excited. On Friday, I am going up to see the <strong>Reverend Al Green</strong> at the Hammersmith Apollo! <em>Yaaayyy!!!!</em><br /><br />That is exciting enough, but in support is a jewel of gospel and queen of southern soul, in the form of <strong>Candi Staton</strong>!<br /><br />There's more! Other soul alumni likely to be present behind-the-scenes include Al Green's musical director, <strong>Norman West</strong>, formerly of <strong>The Soul Children</strong>. I wonder if he is ever tempted out on stage? What would a rendition of Hearsay featuring Norman, Al, and Candi be like?<br /><br /><strong><em>Hang on, did the title of this post say I could win a ticket?</em></strong><br />Yep! I bought a ticket for my good friend Will, but unfortunately he will have to travel for work. I've asked around, and nobody else I know seemed excited about the idea! So... that means I may have <span style="font-size:130%;"><em><strong>a spare ticket</strong></em></span> available! I will try to <strong><em><span style="font-size:130%;">give it away</span></em></strong> to some deserving reader of this blog!<br /><br /><strong><em>How To Win The Ticket!</em></strong><br />I am going to set some simple questions about Al Green, Candi Staton and Norman West. You can probably <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.google.co.uk">google</a> the answers! Email the answers to me at <a href="mailto:robertwhatman@hotmail.com">robertwhatman@hotmail.com</a>, and then i will randomly pick a name out of the hat on thursday at 7 o'clock GMT. Include you name and a contact phone number, so I can contact the lucky recipient on Thursday evening!<br /><br />Here are my questions three...<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">1. What is the name of Al Green's church in Memphis, Tennessee?</span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">2. What was the name of Candi Staton's famous soul-singing second husband, who took her to FAME Studio?</span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">3. Which two Stax songwriters put Norman West's group The Soul Children together to replace Sam & Dave?</span></strong><br /><br />Don't worry if you get stuck on a question! Google it, and if you still can't work it out, just tell me why you really, really want to go see Al Green! Tell me you favourite Al Green song, or your favourite soul artists. I'll put you in the hat!<br /><br />Today, I'm going to serve up some Alabama funky soul from Candi Staton's FAME albums, and some Al Green, each with a good luck message to help you get that ticket:<br /><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RoY7SoBUK0I/AAAAAAAAABM/XoBJuMREXy4/s1600-h/i"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5081814420700801858" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RoY7SoBUK0I/AAAAAAAAABM/XoBJuMREXy4/s320/i%27m+just+a+prisoner.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Al Green - Wish You Were Here (from LP 'Al Green Is Love') 1975<br /></span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Candi Staton - Get It When I Want It (on 'I'm Just A Prisoner' FAME LP 4201) 1970</span></strong><br /><br /><br /><em>P.S. I have now fixed the Al Green link - sorry!</em><br /><br /><strong><em>So much has been written about Candi Staton's life and music. Visit Candi Staton's <a href="http://www.candi-staton.com/">website and bio here</a>, or this short bio from <a href="http://www.divastation.com/candi_staton/staton_bio.html">divastation</a>. <span style="font-size:130%;">Heiki Suosolo</span> of Soul Express magazine did a good <a href="http://www.soulexpress.net/candistaton.htm">interview with Candi here</a>. Candi's autobiography is called <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/This-My-Story-Dianna-Cherry/dp/1562294229/ref=sr_1_2/203-9019306-9571927?ie=UTF8&s=books&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;qid=1183201868&amp;sr=1-2">This Is My Story</a>. Equally, what can I add to the story of Al Green? Visit his <a href="http://www.algreenmusic.com/">website here</a>.</em></strong>Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26229591.post-81844496358718350922007-07-05T20:18:00.000+00:002008-12-11T12:14:31.570+00:00The Original Drifters Come To Rest: Bill Pinkney 1925-2007<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5083835215698471762" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/Ro1pMYBUK1I/AAAAAAAAABU/7S_hcXr_BPM/s320/billpinkneyin1999.gif" border="0" /><strong>RIP Bill Pinkney, 15th August 1925 - July 4th 2007</strong><br /><br />Yesterday, <strong>Bill Pinkney</strong>, the last original member of <strong>The Drifters</strong>, passed away in Daytona, Florida. He had continued his career as a Drifter unbroken from 1953 to the present day, and had been due to perform for a 4th July event.<br /><br />As well as contributing his distinctive bass to the early hits of the Drifters, Bill stood as a testament to musical integrity, defiantly fighting to use the name of Original Drifters after he and the other founder members were summarily sacked by their management in 1958, and campaigning for a law which requires a band to include at least one original member if it wishes to claim to be the genuine article.<br /><br />Bill's life up until 1953 was equally remarkable. Born in Dalzell, South Carolina, Bill Pinkney used to listen to his mother, a choirleader in a church in Woodrow, South Carolina, and started to perform gospel himself at the age of 12 with a group called the Wandering Four. Bill Pinkney joined the US Army to fight in France, and took part<em> </em>as one of 1,500 black troops in the initial assault to secure the Omaha and Utah beaches on D-Day, helping to set up and maintain barrage balloons over the beachhead, delivering ammunition and supplies constantly throughout the assault, dealing with the wounded, and in the following days liberating several villages. Pinkney was assigned as a technician in a combat support unit attached to the 3rd Armoured Division. For his part in outstanding acts of courage supporting the 101st Airborne and fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with them at Bastogne, Bill was the proud recipient of the <strong>Distinguished Unit Citation</strong> (now known as the Presidential Unit Citation) with Four Bronze Stars, denoting service in Normandy, The Battle of Saint Lo, Bastogne, and crossing the Rhine. That Saint Lo action tells you that Bill had a role as a technician in the transport route known as the Red Ball Express, which trucked supplies from Saint Lo to the front line, which is how Bill became trapped in Bastogne with the 101st Airborne whom he was bringing supplies to. After the war, Bill moved to New York and tried for sporting fame, as a pitcher from 1949 to 1951 in a Negro Baseball League with the <strong>New York Blue Sox</strong>. He also began singing with gospel groups the <strong>Jerusalem Stars</strong> and <strong>The Southern Knights</strong>. However, by 1953, Bill had decided he needed a more regular job, and he was running a car dealership.<br /><br /><strong><a href="http://www.rock-ed.org/video.htm">Watch an interview with Bill Pinkney from 2005 about his career...</a></strong><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://www.rock-ed.org/video.htm"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5084484464429771634" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="Watch an interview with Bill Pinkney recorded in 2005 by Vince Welsh..." src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/Ro-3roBUK3I/AAAAAAAAABk/xW4X9yBcmtw/s320/billpinkney2005.bmp" border="0" /></a>It was in 1953 that Bill Pinkney was contacted by his old Southern Knights colleague <strong>Gearhart </strong><strong>Thrasher.</strong> <strong>Clyde McPhatter</strong>, another old aquaintance on the gospel circuit, had an r&b contract with <strong>Atlantic Records</strong>, but was in need of a new group to back him, after the first group, the <strong>Mount Lebanon Gospel Singers</strong>, were rejected by <strong>Ahmet Ertegun</strong>. Billy met up with Gearhart and his brother <strong>Andrew 'Bubba' Thrasher</strong> and local labourer <strong>Willie Ferbie</strong>. The group were among those strongly influenced by the harmonising gospel quartet style of The Orioles, and Bill's deep bass helped to complement Clyde McPatter's soaring melodic lead tenor. It was a sensation in r&amp;b music. The group secured a contract, and Clyde revealed the name Drifters at the end of the sessions after a worried Gearhart Thrasher asked him what they were going to call themselves!<br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5083843096963459938" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="Bill, Willie, Clyde, Andrew & Gearhart in August 1953" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/Ro1wXIBUK2I/AAAAAAAAABc/4r6qOal9Tjo/s320/drifters1953.jpg" border="0" /><br />Thus began a series of r&amp;b hits, amongst which Bill sang lead parts on <strong>White Christmas</strong>, their biggest hit of all time, <strong>Steamboat, I Should Have Done Right, Bip Bam</strong>, and <strong>Soldier Of Fortune</strong>. Bill's presence in the group was soon resented by their manager <strong>George Treadwell</strong>, as Bill, acting as road manager, frequently argued that the group were not getting their fair share of the ticket receipts for their shows.<br /><br /><em>"I was a singing road manager, well there was a fellow name of Charlie Carpenter, he was the manager of a show for Mr Fell, every week he would pay everybody. With the Drifters money, I had to pay Gearhart, a man by the name of David, and a guitar player by the name of Jimmy Oliver... I had to take this money back to New York in a suitcase, cash, and I was making $200 for the week, and the others would get £180, $175, and I would get a few more dollars under the table. Anyhow, I'd dump that suitcase of money, .. then I'd go on back, and get another tour started .. til I finally got hip! I said, you know what, this man is sitting down in his office in New York, we've doing all the work! Atlantic Records paying Jesse Stone, we went in and did the recording, and [George] Treadwell was climbing fat as a manager! He should have only won a percentage of what the Drifters made, not all of the money. So we talked it over with the rest of the Drifters and they said, Yeah you talk to George, we want raise in pay..."</em><br /><br />A pay rise was not forthcoming, and he was summarily fired. After that, Bill went off and recorded some rock and roll themed tracks with a band called <strong>The Turks</strong> (or The Perks according to itunes!) The rest of the Drifters, chastened by Mr Treadwell, carried on, but were all finally fired from their own band in 1958, after a dispute at the Apollo Theater, and George replaced the entire line-up!<br /><br />Bill persuaded the original group to stick together, and kept them going on a lucrative touring schedule, gaining a solid following in the Southeast. At first they went under the name of <strong>The Harmony Grits</strong>, and recorded some singles in 1959 with <strong>David "Little David" Baughn</strong>, who had been one of the singers Clyde had originally picked for his group<em>.</em> Later, <strong>Johnny Moore</strong>, who had also left the Drifters to go solo, got Bill's group to back him on several songs he recorded under the name <strong>Johnny Darrow</strong>, thus renuniting the 1957 Drifters line-up. But it occured to Bill and the others that they had every right to stake a claim to the Drifters name themselves, and so <strong>The Original Drifters</strong> were born. In 1964, they recorded <strong>Don't Call Me</strong> and <strong>I'll Do The Jerk</strong>, on Fontana Records, with temporary lead singer <strong>Jimmy Lewis</strong>. In 1966, they recorded another, for Veep Records, <strong>I Found Some Lovin'</strong> backed with the slow classic <strong>The Masquerade Is Over</strong>. I love this song, especially Nancy Wilson's version, but I would love to hear this rendition by the Drifters some day.<br /><br />As the line-up of the Atlantic Records' Drifters continued to change, it seemed more and more Drifters were competing and claiming the same authenticity! Both <strong>Johnny Moore</strong> and <strong>Charlie Thomas</strong> would continue their own Drifters on the groups departure from Atlantic. This Bill's Original Drifters could accept, seeing as there was some connection to the classic group. Indeed, in 1976 Johnny Moore's Drifters paid the complement of covering <strong>(More Than A Number) In My Little Red Book</strong>, which the Originals had written and recorded back in 1967.<br /><br />As the 70s arrived, however, the Drifters name became further clouded by bands that had little claim to the name. One group that Bill had hired and rehearsed to go on a tour after the other Originals had decided to retire, <strong>The Tears</strong>, dumped him and toured for many years as The Drifters. In the 80s and 90s, other groups, like the <strong>Nu Drifters</strong>, worked almost like Drifters 'franchises'. Bill Pinkney became involved in campaigning for the rights of artists who were being denied control over the identity that was their livelihood. And right up to the present, Bill had kept faith with authenticy by including the son of the founder of the Drifters, <strong>Ron McPhatter,</strong> Clyde's son, in the Originals, alongside <strong>Richard Knight Dunbar</strong>, of duo <strong>The Knight Brothers</strong> fame. The group also ventured into gospel in recent times, recording as <strong>The Gospel Drifters</strong>.<br /><br />Bill was awarded the key to the state of South Carolina, which proclaimed May 14 as Bill Pinkney Day. Not least amongst his other honours must stand his 2001 honorary doctorate for services to South Carolina's state dance, the Shag!<br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">The Drifters - Bip Bam (B side of Atlantic 1043) 1954</span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">The Drifters - Steamboat (B Side of Atlantic 1078) 1955</span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">The Drifters - I Should Have Done Right 1956</span></strong><br /><br /><br /><em><strong>Information found at BBC News, </strong></em><a href="http://www.originaldrifters.com/"><em><strong>www.originaldrifters.com</strong></em></a><em><strong> , </strong><a href="http://www.soulfulkindamusic.net/drifters.htm"><strong>Soulfulkindamusic</strong></a><strong>, wikipedia (!), the </strong><a href="http://www.scafricanamericanhistory.com/currenthonoree.asp?month=9&year=2001"><em><strong>South Carolina African American History Calendar</strong></em></a><strong>, and most especially from the amazing research of </strong><a href="http://home.att.net/~marvy42/Drifters/drifters.html"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Marv Goldberg's R&amp;B Notebooks</strong></span></a><strong>, (also his </strong><a href="http://home.att.net/~marvart/Origdrifters/origdrifters.html"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Original Drifters Notebook</span> </strong></a><strong>). Vince Welsh has recorded an </strong><a href="http://www.rock-ed.org/video.htm"><strong>interview with Bill Pinkney</strong></a><strong> which you can watch. Also of interest is the regimental history page of the </strong><a href="http://www.761st.com/index.php?page=Home"><strong>761st Tank Battalion</strong></a><strong>. Info concerning black soldiers on D-Day can be found in an article by <span style="font-size:130%;">Marian Douglas</span> at </strong><a href="http://www.afrigeneas.com/forumb/index.cgi?noframes;read=11090"><strong>Afrigeneas</strong></a><strong>.</strong> <strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Gregory Kane</span> writes an interesting article about </strong><a href="http://www.blackamericaweb.com/site.aspx/bawnews/bulge1215"><strong>the contribution of black soldiers fighting at Bastogne </strong></a><strong>in the Battle of The Bulge.</strong></em>Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26229591.post-4051462199496146512007-07-14T19:44:00.000+00:002008-12-11T12:14:30.902+00:00Tricolore Soul: Monsieur Eddy!<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RpkhxuzfoCI/AAAAAAAAABs/cy5phuHjAKw/s1600-h/soul+tricolore+1.bmp"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5087134392353005602" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RpkhxuzfoCI/AAAAAAAAABs/cy5phuHjAKw/s320/soul+tricolore+1.bmp" border="0" /></a>Well, after a little sleep, I'm feeling more awake, and I caught the end of le Tour as they raced through le Col de la Colombiére. And my dad arrived with soup and supplies!<br /><div>Normally, I'd be off to the local pub for their Bastille Day party and some bouillabaisse, and then down to a club that dedicates itself to glorious Radio FIP, which Brightonians are lucky enough to be able to tune into halfway underneath Radio 1. Ah, europop and yéyé girls!</div><br /><div>Instead, while I eat my soup, I thought I'd serve you up some early French soul. I didn't know what to call this mini-series. Originally it was just French Soul, then Bastille Day Soul, then Funk The Bastille!</div><br /><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RpkiK-zfoDI/AAAAAAAAAB0/moOZcgCVaMY/s1600-h/les+chausettes+noires.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5087134826144702514" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RpkiK-zfoDI/AAAAAAAAAB0/moOZcgCVaMY/s320/les+chausettes+noires.jpg" border="0" /></a>The modern indigenous French soul scene is thriving and has a much firmer place in French sub-cultures than its British equivalents. However, I thought I'd go further back, to the 60s, to see how one of the original French rock and rollers became intrigued by the soul sound, to such an extent that he went on to spend much of his career recording in Nashville, Memphis and Louisiana. <strong>Claude Moine</strong>, who in honour of his rock and roll heroes, changed his stage name to <strong>Eddy Mitchell</strong>, and is venerated by all French people as simply <strong>Monsieur Eddy</strong>.</div><br /><div>Eddy and his band <strong>Les Chaussettes Noires</strong> got a residency playing at <strong>le Golf Drouot</strong>, a Parisian club which originally had its own 9-hole miniature golf course inside. It was also one of the first clubs with a jukebox, filled with American tunes. Soon, they were signed to <strong>Barclay Records</strong>, and had several rock and roll hits. After Eddy went to do military service, he embarked on a solo career, continuing the rock and roll.</div><div></div><br /><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/Rpkid-zfoEI/AAAAAAAAAB8/XfUkNm6kqIc/s1600-h/eddy+newspaper+cutting.bmp"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5087135152562217026" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/Rpkid-zfoEI/AAAAAAAAAB8/XfUkNm6kqIc/s320/eddy+newspaper+cutting.bmp" border="0" /></a>He recorded several times in London, and while there in 1965, it seems he came into contact with some of the modern soul music being imported from the USA. From this point on, the sound of Eddy Mitchell was distinctively different from that of other French pop artists - he turned up the horns, the guitars played blues, and he chose to interpret or write soulful tunes, all the while singing in French with the passion of a soul balladeer but also with the nuances of French chanson. The albums <strong>Du rock ‘n’ roll au rhythm ‘n’ blues (Barclay 1965) </strong>and <strong>Seul (Barclay 1966)</strong> were recorded in London, while <strong>De Londres à Memphis (1967)</strong> saw Eddy finally travel to America. They comprise the heart of Eddy's soulful output.</div><br /><div></div><div>Here are a few of those tracks for you to consider. First up is a bluesy number:</div><br /><div></div><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Eddy Mitchell - J'avais deux amis (I had two friends)</span></strong></div><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></strong></div><br /><div>Eddy moves into Deep Soul country, with an opening sliding guitar string that just makes me think of Hot Buttered Soul!:</div><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></strong></div><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Eddy Mitchell - Je ne me retourerai pas (I will not be turned over)</span></strong></div><div></div><br /><div>And another Eddy original from his 1966 album:</div><div></div><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"></span></strong></div><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Eddy Mitchell - Seul (Alone)</span></strong></div><div></div><div></div><div>And I haven't yet shared Eddy's fabulous Creedence impression, or his version of Hard To Handle! I am going to have to do another Eddy post quite soon!</div><br /><div></div><div>After a slight slowdown in his career, Eddy picked up again in the mid-70s, travelling annually to Nashville to record with <strong>Charlie McCoy</strong> and his band, and following a country rock vibe. And he's still going strong today, having recently recorded a new CD <strong>Jambalaya</strong> with a number of displaced New Orleans musicians in LA after Hurricane Katrina, and calling in the likes of Johnny Halliday (his fellow gallic rocker) and <strong>Little Richard</strong>.</div><br /><div></div><div><strong><a href="http://eddymitchell.artistes.universalmusic.fr/main_site.php">Eddy Mitchell's website.</a></strong></div><br /><div><strong></strong></div><div><strong><a href="http://www.rfimusique.com/siteen/biographie/biographie_6092.asp">RFI Music </a>have a great biography in english of Eddy's career.</strong></div><div><strong></strong></div><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Shout Outs To Les Soul-blogs Francaises!:</span> </strong>If you want to practice your french while also listening to some fine music, try out these sites. We have to mention <strong><span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="http://www.awfulthom.com/">le case de l'affreux thom</a></span></strong>, a blog of refinement and taste; also, I've just come across <strong><span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="http://mushroomsoul.blogspot.com/">Mushroom Soul</a></span></strong>,which looks like it will become a favourite of mine. I've visited <strong><span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="http://loadedtothegills.blogspot.com/">Loaded To The Gills</a></span></strong> on occasion, and found some interesting funk. For in depth resources on Otis Redding, check out <strong><span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="http://www.otisredding.fr/">The Otis Redding Site</a></span></strong> of <strong>Jean Paul Pécréaux</strong>. To discuss soul music in french, visit <strong><span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="http://fr.groups.yahoo.com/group/the_dark_end_of_the_street/">The Dark End Of The Street</a></span></strong> - don't worry, they will be kind if your words fail you, like me!</div>Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26229591.post-9948263278940392962007-07-26T11:15:00.000+00:002008-12-11T12:14:30.327+00:00My Birthday Choice: Jumpin' Jack Flash!<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RqiFo395uZI/AAAAAAAAACU/7C2eNUY4Uxk/s1600-h/jagger.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5091466316007192978" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RqiFo395uZI/AAAAAAAAACU/7C2eNUY4Uxk/s320/jagger.jpg" border="0" /></a>Today is the first day of my holidays, and it's also my birthday (hooray!).<br /><br />I happen to share my birthday with one <strong>Michael Jagger</strong>, who is considerably older than me today. Other things I don't share in common with Mick Jagger are being born in London, attending the London School of Economics, and getting a first-class honours degree. And writing hundreds of classic r&b numbers. But I <em>can</em> dance like a chicken impersonating James Brown (or Joe Tex, or Rufus Thomas, according to preference) just as badly! It is slowly dawning on me why my younger self never had much success with the ladies at discos...<br /><br />Now, rather than pick a random Rolling Stones song from Aftermath or Let It Bleed, which I would enjoy but is not really the point of the blog <em>(its been really hard not to let some of the Soul Britannia posts I've been writing grow into a history of mod bands, which I imagine would not really interest most of you out there!),</em> I had a think about a song that would have a birthday theme and would highlight the r&amp;b basis of the Stones music. There was only one choice to make, and it will get you up and leaping about, like I will be!<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RqiFMn95uYI/AAAAAAAAACM/LqSkf-l5ko4/s1600-h/thelma+houston.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5091465830675888514" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RqiFMn95uYI/AAAAAAAAACM/LqSkf-l5ko4/s320/thelma+houston.jpg" border="0" /></a>The singer today is <strong>Thelma Houston</strong>. This track is one of the covers featured on album <strong>Sunshower</strong>, produced by <strong>Jimmy Webb</strong> (of By The Time I Get To Phoenix fame), who wrote many of the other tracks. I think I may feature some more over the summer!<br /><br />I have heard a number of unusual comments about this song in the past - that it refers to voodoo; that it refers to Sympathy For The Devil; that it 'isn't' r&b at all. Of these, let's tackle the last first. The argument, amongst mostly white 'rock' fans, is that the chords utilised in the song presage 'rock' music. Keith Richards has commented on the song and agreed that the structure of the song was more ambitious than their earlier r&amp;b covers and compositions, but equally he found it a relief to 'return' to r&b feeling and iconography after their brief psychedelic experiments, and felt it showed growing maturity in their writing and playing. I get the feeling that the Stones themselves would be embarrassed by these 'birth of rock' advocates, who clearly quite misunderstand the r&amp;b group the Stones were always trying to be.<br /><br /><div>Equally, the 'voodoo' statements seem laboured. Mick and Keith were writing lyrics with the much more common theme of the hard life in mind. What is interesting is how they transform a hard life blues into a story where the obstacles are overcome. More likely is that it simply speaks about the traumas and trials of any troubled childhood, from men who were all fortunate to grow up in caring homes in post-war Britain. The song was written around the time that the tv documentary Cathy Come Home was shown in Britain, showing the appalling treatment that unmarried mothers and their children were forced to put up with at that time, and the scandals of childrens' homes. It caused a prolonged national debate about such matters and child welfare.</div><br /><div>Whereas the Stones had played it lacksadaisically and Jagger had sung it with a front of bravado, mimicing the attitude of people who internalise such events, when Thelma sings the song, she brings added power to the song that almost knocks you over, and a heart-rending sense of pain into her voice, making you almost believe that this is personal. Thelma, born Thelma Jackson, would have been able to draw on her memories of her early life in Leland, Mississippi, loved but poor, when her mother supported them by picking cotton, before they made a new life for themselves in Long Beach, California.<br /></div><br /><div>To make it clear, I was probably not born in a crossfire hurricane...<br /></div><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Thelma Houston - Jumpin' Jack Flash (from Dunhill/Motown album 'Sunshower' 1969)</span></strong></div><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:100%;"><em>Information about Thelma Houston found in All Music Guide by Ed Hogan. Information about Mick Jagger from White Heat by Dominic Sandbrook.</em></span></strong></div>Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26229591.post-10113764158363251422007-07-30T16:30:00.000+00:002008-12-11T12:14:29.905+00:00The Best Thing You Ever Had: Candi Staton In Hammersmith<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/Rq398H95ucI/AAAAAAAAACs/9Rdy23fCTV4/s1600-h/Hammersmith-under-ground.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5093005962998561218" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="This photograph reenacts me rushing to the concert..." src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/Rq398H95ucI/AAAAAAAAACs/9Rdy23fCTV4/s320/Hammersmith-under-ground.gif" border="0" /></a>I've finally gotten around to dragging out my notebook and writing up a little report about <strong>Al Green</strong> and <strong>Candi Staton</strong> at Hammersmith Apollo. I've split it up into two posts, to give each artist their credit.<br /><div><div><br /><div>I almost thought I wasn't going to make it up to London in time, after a last minute planning meeting at work meant I left an hour later than planned. But as the time hit 7:30, I was rushing out of the underground, trying to pick the correct subway exit to come out in front of the Apollo. No time to waste, as the sound of <strong>Candi Staton</strong> in full swing was roaring out into the foyer! I stumbled my way upstairs to the gallery, and found my seat, with a wonderful clear view down onto the stage below, where Candi was in the midst of singing the song Elvis Presley admitted she could do better, <strong>In The Ghetto</strong>.<br /></div><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RqzMqH95ubI/AAAAAAAAACk/7YArxHinZTw/s1600-h/candi_staton.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5092670302714444210" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RqzMqH95ubI/AAAAAAAAACk/7YArxHinZTw/s320/candi_staton.jpg" border="0" /></a>Candi was looking glorious, and dominated the stage, moving about so much that sometimes the lighting crew had difficulty keeping the spot up with her. <em>"Who loves the blues?"</em>, she called out, <em>"I love the blues!"</em></div><br /><div>Candi can sing blues but equally can soar into gospel heights. Candi's life story is filled with many trials and difficulties, but also relates how they can be overcome, emerging triumphantly. So that now Candi is able to get every woman in the auditorium standing up and building a mood of confidence as she sings another track from her 1973 album, <strong>The Best Thing You Ever Had</strong>. Candi boosts the women while slyly ribbing us men for our biological flaws:</div><br /><div><em>"Girls, sing it with me - I'm The Best Thing You Ever Had! ... Sometimes, our men just don't appreciate us, do they? When we're out with our men, they keep looking around, like this (she does a mean impression of one of those corner of the eye looks we do when something aesthetic catches our attention). They just can't see what they already got! Boys, I don't need no internet to see what I'm looking for!"</em></div><br /><div>Time to make up, guys and girls, and everybody gets to sing along with Candi's uplifting disco hit <strong>Young Hearts Run Free</strong>. For her final number Candi sings her dance classic <strong>You Got The Love</strong>.</div><br /><div>As the band play on, Candi introduces us to them - Ernie on bass, Suzy and Xavier on vocals, Tom and Ritch on horns, and <strong>Terry Williams</strong> on congas: <em>"He's from Atlanta Georgia. I should know, 'coz I was there when he was born. He's my third son!"</em></div><br /><div>And then its her second son, <strong>Marcus Williams</strong>, who completes the set with a storming drum solo.</div><br /><div>And that was the end of Candi's set.</div><br /><div>Short but sweet!</div><br /><div>Sadly, I don't have Candi Staton's United Artist album, or even a CD with Best Thing You Ever Had or In The Ghetto on it. So perhaps you will enjoy instead another track from her FAME debut:</div><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Candi Staton - Sweet Feeling (from LP I'm Just a Prisoner - Fame LP 4201) 1970</span></strong></div></div><div><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;"><em>NEXT: Al Green!</em></span></strong><br /><br /></div><div><strong><em><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/Rq4Fyn95udI/AAAAAAAAAC0/yQWZQrDHAuY/s1600-h/his+hands.bmp"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5093014595882826194" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/Rq4Fyn95udI/AAAAAAAAAC0/yQWZQrDHAuY/s200/his+hands.bmp" border="0" /></a>As usual, the concept of taking my own photos in the dark has baffled me! So, the photograph of Candi is from a recent concert in Holland, taken by Eric Van Nieuwland. A nice interview and biographical details about Candi Staton can be found at <a href="http://www.divastation.com/candi_staton/staton_bio.html">divastation</a>. Go and buy Candi Staton's new album, <span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/His-Hands-Candi-Staton/dp/B000CBVMLS/ref=pd_bbs_sr_4/203-3278749-5523169?ie=UTF8&s=music&amp;amp;amp;amp;qid=1185809777&amp;sr=8-4">His Hands</a>.</span></em></strong></div></div></div>Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26229591.post-53464701612681977092007-08-07T00:13:00.000+00:002008-12-11T12:14:29.397+00:00"Let's See If Al's Still Got It": Al Green In Hammersmith 11.7.07<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/Rq4IPX95ugI/AAAAAAAAADM/RRY_x6Ke_Ms/s1600-h/carling_apollo.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5093017288827320834" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/Rq4IPX95ugI/AAAAAAAAADM/RRY_x6Ke_Ms/s320/carling_apollo.gif" border="0" /></a><br /><strong><em>This post was ready last Tuesday, but I've begun my holiday in France and have had no luck getting to a computer until today! Sorry for the needless waiting!:</em></strong><br /><br />As Candi's band leave the stage I am joined by a bunch of people who are surprised to see such a soul great leaving so soon. Nevertheless, they are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Reverend Al Green. They have seen him twice before, and as one of them describes it: <em>"It's impossible to stay in your seat when Al Green is on stage."</em> They were right. I tell you, we did not stop jumping up, singing and responding to Rev Green the whole time.<br /><br /><div><div>At 8:30, Al Green bounds on to stage, carrying his trademark roses for the crowd, flanked by two warm up dancers who do a routine while Al gets into <strong>I Can't Stop</strong>. People are already out of their seats to find space to dance, and girls are pushing to the front and leaning onto the stage so that Al can reward them with a kiss or a plastic rose. As if sensing the exhalted, maybe fevered, atmosphere of expectation, Al finishes the song and greets us with humour:<br /></div><br /><div><em>"Now, sit down folks, relax! I'll do the work; you enjoy the concert..."</em><br /></div><br /><div>Al moves into <strong>Let's Make Love</strong>, which hardly serves to calm the ladies down, especially when he explains <em>"I'm gonna sooooothe you...".</em> Throughout this song, Al and his dancers go through a fascinating series of hand gestures, gentle twirls and poses. Sophisticated and smooth are just words.<br /></div><br /><div>Al chats about recent events: <em>"Did you hear about those guys that drove into the airport? What was that? I tell you, friends of mine called me up from the US and they said, Al, stay over there! Sure glad they caught all them guys."</em> </div><br /><br /><div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/Rq4H6395ufI/AAAAAAAAADE/6uXrpZxYbFU/s1600-h/Al+Green+UK+Tour+2007.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5093016936640002546" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/Rq4H6395ufI/AAAAAAAAADE/6uXrpZxYbFU/s320/Al+Green+UK+Tour+2007.jpg" border="0" /></a>Time for a little bit of gospel from <strong>Everything's OK</strong>, as the Reverend Green sings <strong>Everything Gonna Be Alright (He's Coming Back)</strong>. It goes down well, and we get to sing a chorus back to the Reverend and for whoever is up above.<br /></div><br /><br /><div><em>"We're in Hammersmith (cheers)! You know, all I can think is, I wanna be out there with you! I went to the Royal Albert Hall (Al puts on an upper-class accent for this, and the crowd go 'oooh'). Man, I had to be careful I didn't walk on a rug!"</em> And Al laughs at the memory.</div><br /><br /><div>I was reading beforehand some of the comments on the Southern Soul Group forum, and I had been a little taken aback at how non-plussed some of the contributors seemed to have been with Al Green at the Albert Hall. I did start to worry that the experience was not going to be up to my hopes. I suppose people were expecting something resembling a note-for-note CD recording, and were not prepared for the call-outs, the banter, the stagecraft and sing-along that we received from a consummate live performer. Equally, who should expect a pyrotechnic light-show, when the key to the music is the man, his heart and his voice. For that, a plastic rose in the hand of a woman (or man!) is the one-to-one connection that makes the song come alive. I have to say much of the trouble perhaps stems from the venue: the Albert Hall is not a venue that creates an atmosphere, and thus no wonder people would start to feel something was missing. It was all much plainer to see and feel when crammed into the more intimate and human Apollo theatre. It's getting so warm, Al tears off his jacket and throws it down:</div><br /><div><em>"Somebody told em, Take it off! Somebody else said, put it on - its cold in here!"</em></div><br /><div>Al brings us to a hush and begins to sing <strong>Amazing Grace</strong>, and asks us to sing with him. The moment of reflection is brought to a close when Al directs us:</div><br /><div><em>"Let's take it back to the beginning. 1972."</em> And he sings <strong>Let's Stay Together</strong>.</div><br /><div>It's all about the moments and the personal stuff. Al gives us another hit straight away, with <strong>How Can You Mend A Broken Heart</strong>. This is when he introduces us to his daughter Deborah Green, on backing vocals. Al does a nice line of 'la la las' in synch with Deborah's backing, then abruptly signals stop: <em>"Wait!"</em></div><br /><div>Everyone holds their breath. What could be wrong?</div><br /><div>Al smiles. <em>"I wanna make it sound just like the record!"</em> And he launches straight back in, this time floating even more effortlessly!</div><br /><div>It seems the song has put someone into the mood, and Al is quick to spot them:</div><br /><div><em>"Hey, leave the lady alone, I saw ya! She don't holler like that for nothing!"</em> But who can blame them, and should we stop them? After all, Al tells us, now its <em>"1974!".</em> It makes the world go around - <strong>Here I Am, Come And Take Me.</strong></div><br /><div>Things take an unexpected detour now.</div><br /><div><em>"I'm feeling like I wanna sing songs that aren't on the list. Songs that tell you where our songs come from, so you know why they lasted so long. Maybe they've helped somebody along the way. Raise your hand if they've helped you along!"</em> The hands go up all over. Al treats us to a medley of short snippets from a few popular soul classics, all familiar, in tribute to his vocal heroes and southern soul antecendents Sam Cooke and Otis Redding. The Four Tops also get Al's salute, as he sings through <strong>Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch/Bring It On Home/My Girl/Sitting' On The Dock Of The Bay/Wonderful World.</strong><br /></div><br /><div><strong>I'm So Tired Of Being Alone</strong> gets us back up to a fever pitch again, and Al is loving it so much he has to do something to savour the moment. He halts before the crescendo to holler:</div><br /><div><em>"Let's see if Al's still got it! He used to have it... YEAAAAAHHHHH!"</em> </div><br /><div>And he falls to his knees and nails the high note.</div><br /><div>Al Green goes into the crowd in the next song to show <strong>I'm Still In Love With You</strong>. Walking back along the front row, a blonde woman stands up and blocks his way, so that Al is going to give her that hug she is after! Al clambers back on stage, and while the band play behind him, he tells us how proud he is to have his daughter working with him, and carrying on the singing tradition. But there's still stuff he can teach her, he teases:</div><br /><div><em>"She's always asking me, How do I hit that high note, Dad?"</em> Al looks over to Deborah, smiles, and hums a little pastiche of Mercy, Mercy Me. I assume Debbie Green is used to this!<br /></div><br /><div><em>"Well, you do it something like this .... AAAHHHH!"</em></div><br /><div>The band kick in more powerfully, and now we are into the final song <strong>Love And Happiness</strong>. And as we get to that moment, Al has to milk the crowd some more:</div><br /><div><em>"Wait! Let me do it once more! I like that!"</em> One more high note!</div><br /><div>The crowd cheer and clap as Al waves goodbye and leaves the stage, and the band segue into their instrumental showpiece, <strong>Funky Nassau</strong>. One by one they are introduced by the musical director and get to do their thing. I was particularly impressed with the sound of <strong>Dave Cook</strong> on the electric clarinet, and now I can place that strange pulsating buzzy vibe in so many songs!</div><br /><div>It was all over as the lights came up, and we had been treated to a show. Only three questions troubled me as I left the gallery. Why no encore? Still, you can't say Al Green hadn't given it his all. Next, why did the musical directer go wild with a Hendrix style 'throw the guitar on the ground and jump on it' routine? Well, he's got to be as excited as we were! Finally, why was the intermission music made up entirely of <strong>Roxy Music</strong> tracks? Which just goes to show you great music comes in many forms!</div><div><br /><div><strong>Al Green Set List:<br />I Can't Stop</strong> </div><div><strong>Let's Make Love<br />Everything's Gonna Be Alright (He's Coming Back)</strong> </div><div><strong>Amazing Grace<br />Let's Stay Together<br />Here I Am (Come And Take Me)<br />Medley: Sugar Pie Honey Bunch/Bring It On Home/My Girl/Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay/Wonderful World<br />I'm So Tired Of Being Alone<br />I'm Still In Love With You<br />Love And Happiness<br />(Al Green departs)<br />Funky Nassau (band only)</strong><br /></div></div><br /><div><strong><em>As usual, I can't take photos of anything! Images of Al Green from the Al Green tour programme, and from <span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/7221361@N04/788495290/in/set-72157600778777509/">Juan Pérez-Fajardo's</a></span> photos of the Madrid show on 11th July - EDIT:</em></strong><strong><em> Blogger has just deleted the picture I uploaded for the third time!!! Follow the link to see the photos for yourself.</em></strong></div></div>Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26229591.post-53615874444686383612007-08-21T19:03:00.000+00:002008-12-11T12:14:28.963+00:00More Tricolore Soul: Eddy Can Handle It!<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/Rq5YW395uiI/AAAAAAAAADc/G1j2Yrf1KLg/s1600-h/eddy_mitchell.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5093105378606561826" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/Rq5YW395uiI/AAAAAAAAADc/G1j2Yrf1KLg/s320/eddy_mitchell.jpg" border="0" /></a>I've been on holidays for three weeks, driving through France with <em>ma cherie amour</em> and her mother. First, we went off to Limoges, and then across country to Alsace. I'd been preparing some posts that I hoped I could post en route, when I reached an internet cafe... Well, I got the Al Green one online when we stopped by a friend of <em>ma cherie amour</em>, but other than that the holiday has been computerless. I tried using a internet-accessing phone, but it was totally beyond my understanding. The <em>good</em> news is that here is last weeks post, and that posts and ideas are piling up ready to tumble out.<br /><br /><div>When I prepared my Bastille Day post, I knew I couldn't resist a bit more <strong>Eddy Mitchell</strong> before next 14th July! This one is from 1969, and sees Eddy get to grips with <strong>Otis Redding</strong> material. It's a version francais of <strong>Hard To Handle</strong>, with a new set of lyrics written by Eddy himself, and titled <strong>Otis</strong>. Playing the song are a group called <strong>JC Petit et Les Soul Brass</strong>.</div><br /><div>Eddy translated and recorded a number of songs by his favourite rock and roll artists including many songs by his biggest hero <strong>Gene Vincent, </strong>and also many r&b artists, including<strong> Little Richard, Ray Charles, Louis Jordan, J J Jackson, Wilson Pickett, Clarence Carter, Sam &amp; Dave</strong>, <strong>Stevie Wonder,</strong> <strong>James Brown</strong> and <strong>Don Covay</strong>. </div><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/Rq5ct395ujI/AAAAAAAAADk/pyUDLS7en1w/s1600-h/eddyotis1969.bmp"></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/Rq5dmH95ukI/AAAAAAAAADs/GHkjMTJXNjw/s1600-h/eddyotis1969.bmp"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5093111138157705794" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="Eddy sings Otis on 4th September 1969" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/Rq5dmH95ukI/AAAAAAAAADs/GHkjMTJXNjw/s320/eddyotis1969.bmp" border="0" /></a><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Eddy Mitchell - Otis (Hard To Handle) (Barclay 20036) 1969</span></strong></div><br /><div><em><strong>A fantastic site for details of all of Eddy Mitchell's cover versions is available at </strong></em><a href="http://www.mitchell-city.com/adaptations/adaptations.htm"><em><strong>Mitchell-City</strong></em></a><em><strong>. Watch Eddy singing Otis on French TV in September 1969 <a href="http://chansons.ina.fr/index.php?vue=notice&amp;from=fulltext&num_notice=3&amp;cs_order=0&total_notices=65&amp;mc=Mitchell,%20Eddy">here</a>.</strong></em></div>Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26229591.post-3569950209166166062007-08-28T10:05:00.000+00:002008-12-11T12:14:28.573+00:00Stop The Violence<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RtPmFAdf1aI/AAAAAAAAAEM/jnxL7Ei6kMU/s1600-h/young+victims+of+guns+and+knives+in+britain+2007.gif"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5103675776438359458" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RtPmFAdf1aI/AAAAAAAAAEM/jnxL7Ei6kMU/s320/young+victims+of+guns+and+knives+in+britain+2007.gif" border="0" /></a>Recently, a series of shootings involving young people have hit the headlines in Britain. These tragedies have ignited a debate about the issue of gun use among young people. Most recently, an 11-year old boy named Rhys Jones was shot dead by a youth riding a bmx bike while walking home in Croxteth, Liverpool.<br /><div><br /><p>The number of murders involving firearms in Britain is far smaller than in the United States, which is why they have had such a national media impact. Murders involving hand guns have actually fallen in the past year, and killings involving young people have actually fallen dramatically - by half - in recent years, not risen. The worry is that this could be a temporary lull. Woundings involving firearms have risen from around 850 woundings per year five years ago to around 4000 last year. Possibly more worrying is the much higher rise in the carrying of knives. People involved in the drugs trade are bringing weapons onto the street as part of their business and needlessly putting young people at risk. Even more irresponsibly, they are putting some of those weapons into the hands of young people, either when they dispose of them or when they recruit the impressionable into doing their errands. Worse, many of those young people who choose to carry a knife are not doing so because they want to be criminals, but because they feel scared in the communities that drug gangs are preying upon.</p><p>What is so sad is that young people are no different today than at any time in the past fifty years, and nor are the problems they encounter as they enter young adulthood. We should be able to surmount most of them and give every child a meaningful future. And most young people are reaching for that future. Young people today are working harder and achieving more in education than ever before. They are not irredeemable, as some tabloids like to assume. The trouble is that for the ones who do drop out and become dissaffected, they are less prepared for technical and trade careers, and there is now an established underworld that habitually uses guns and knives for 'respect' to fall into, should they happen to live in areas where the trade in drugs has grown. Over half of all incidents involving weapons occur in a handful of cities: London, Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool amongst them. So for those young people that we miss, the ones we fail, the consequences can be higher than they used to be in these communities.</p><p>So for all of us, if we want to stop the violence from escalating, we have to try harder to support young people. Spend time with them, do our jobs as parents and families, talk with them, set an example, work with our neighbours to put our neighbourhoods in order, help them with their schoolwork, make sure they do it, provide training in trades as well as academic subjects and office skills, improve the surroundings so they are safer, talk to them about the adult world before they are faced with it, stop bombarding them with commercials and commodities, play with them, set up clubs and run activities that give young people hobbies and interests, teach them how to talk to people and communicate, get young people involved in helping others, get the police on the beat again and people talking to them (people, you <em>have</em> to talk to the police if they are going to solve murders). As an aside, it wouldn't hurt if we could cut out the casual drug use at dinner parties and in university digs. They exacerbate the problems of communities they don't live in. Where do those people think drugs come from? A fairtrade stall?</p><div>Britain is still a remarkably safe place to grow up. What better time to start to make it even safer and fulfilling? </div><div><br /><br /><div><strong><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RtPlXwdf1YI/AAAAAAAAAD8/rntF2QghRi0/s1600-h/reflections.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5103674999049278850" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RtPlXwdf1YI/AAAAAAAAAD8/rntF2QghRi0/s320/reflections.jpg" border="0" /></a>Gil Scott-Heron</strong> wrote today's song to comment upon the impact of hand-gun violence on urban communities in the USA, and the false sense of security that a weapon provides.</div></div><br /><div>We have to get the message across to young people, across the world, that carrying a weapon might feel as if it provides protection and a sense of power in an adult world, but that in fact it will actually make their lives and community less safe. In the United Kingdom, the overwhelming majority of gun and knife wound victims (for in fact it is the carrying of knives that has actually risen more steeply) were carrying weapons of their own. It can act as a provocation to others who are carrying a weapon if you are known to carry or produce yours - the chances are that the other boy or girl is going to want to live up your your challenge, and you have just raised the stakes to a dangerous level. Now you are in this situation, the next step is more likely to be that you will use your weapon. The consequences are enormous and hard to take back.</div><br /><div>Is that where you set out to be when you picked up that weapon and put it in your pocket?<br /></div><br /><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Gil Scott-Heron - Gun (from Arista LP 'Reflections') 1981</span></strong><br /></div><br /><br /><br /><div></div></div>Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26229591.post-29669199747227024192007-09-07T19:35:00.000+00:002008-12-11T12:14:27.915+00:00He Meant Well: Say It One More Time For Kip Anderson 1941 - 2007<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RuGJIQdf1bI/AAAAAAAAAEU/DAdRtbVjI0o/s1600-h/kip_anderson_025%5B1%5D.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5107514227365500338" style="margin: 0px 10px 10px 0px; float: left;" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RuGJIQdf1bI/AAAAAAAAAEU/DAdRtbVjI0o/s320/kip_anderson_025%5B1%5D.jpg" border="0" /></a><strong>Born January 24, 1941 in Anderson, South Carolina; died Wednesday August 29th 2007</strong><br /><br /><div></div><div>Today's post is going to add to the other tributes that have been presented about Kip Anderson, who died after recent heart problems in his home town of Anderson, South Carolina.<br /></div><div>The title of this post comes from an <a href="http://www.metrobeat.net/gbase/Expedite/Content?oid=oid%3A2061"><strong>interview</strong></a> with Kip for The Beat magazine by <strong>Dan Armonaitis</strong> in 2003. When asked what he would like to be remembered for, Kip replied that he would ask for his tombstone simply to read: "He meant well". By all accounts, Kip Anderson was a gentle and kind individual, and devoted a great deal of his time helping others in the community. In part this was inspired by the pitfalls that he himself had encountered in his life that almost derailed his musical career, and by the individuals who, when he had reached a low point, offered him a lifeline.</div><br /><div>Dan's article is well worth the time reading for its detailed summary of Kip's life and career, as well as the personal anectdotes which Kip revealed to him in their interviews: amongst the highlights of which is, what Sam Cooke used to do to the unsuspecting Blind Boys of Alabama while driving their car to a gig. With Kip's input, the article spans from his early years playing piano for gospel groups in Anderson and his big break playing for gospel legend Madame Edna Gallmon Cooke, to his move into r&amp;b recording, to his movements from label to label looking for the big hit, which came closest with I Went Off And Cried, on which Kip Anderson uttered the legendary phrase 'say it one time for the broken-hearted.' It then records the struggles Kip had through the 1970s trying to beat an addiction and cope with the stresses of incarceration, and the way in which, thanks to a prison warden who happened to be an old school friend, Kip got the chance to discover how music could transform other people's lives as well as his own. His well-deserved career renaissance saw him feted in both the local gospel and the beach music audiences.</div><div></div><div><strong>Without A Woman</strong>, a release on Checker Records for Chess, was the first Kip Anderson song I ever heard, and precisely the sixth soul record I had ever heard. It can't fail to hit the mark as a quintessential deep southern soul number, being written by Quin Ivy and Dan Penn and recorded at FAME.</div><div></div><br /><div><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Kip Anderson - Without A Woman (Checker Records) 1966</span></strong></div><br /><br /><div><strong><em><span style="font-size:130%;">Visit the </span></em></strong><a href="http://www.kipanderson.com/index.cfm?nextpage=contact"><strong><em><span style="font-size:130%;">Kip Anderson website</span></em></strong></a>.</div><br /><em><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>For more information on Kip Anderson, go to the </strong></span></em><a href="http://www.metrobeat.net/gbase/Expedite/Content?oid=oid%3A2061"><em><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Dan Armonaitis article</strong></span></em></a><em><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>.</strong></span></em>Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26229591.post-80507894857807857292007-09-15T13:49:00.000+00:002008-12-11T12:14:27.576+00:00It's Twine Time!: Alvin Cash And The Registers<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RuKOBwdf1cI/AAAAAAAAAEc/UOIBiY4pMa4/s1600-h/alvincash%26brothers.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RuKOBwdf1cI/AAAAAAAAAEc/UOIBiY4pMa4/s320/alvincash%26brothers.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5107801088231200194" border="0" /></a><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:180%;">"The Twine</span>, which is the title of this album, is a dance started in one of Chicago's High Schools. It is the consensus of opinion that Dunbar High School students started the dance.</span> <div> <span style="font-style: italic;">Herb 'The Cool Gent' Kent, WVON deejay, popular with teenagers, picked up the name at one of his regular record hops and started talking about the WOODBINE TWINE (the title of our newest release by the Five Du-Tones).</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">Bill Cody, who has taught choreography and dancing in and around Chicago for many years to most of the singing groups, saw the dance and brought it to the attention of Mar-V-Lus' A&amp;R man, Andre Williams. Andre saw the dance and felt the beat - grabbed Alvin Cash and the Registers, and bingo, the rest is history.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">Alvin Cash, the leader of the Crawlers dance group has been on the entertainment scene as a dancer and entertainer for thirteen years. Alvin was born in St. Louis, Missouri, is now 23 years old. At the age of 10, Alvin became a close associate of his Uncle Bill Robinson Jr., who was a well known dancer in the St. Louis area; and soon after, became a part of his uncle's act. Later, when Alvin's brothers, Robert (now 16) and George (now 15), were 7 and 8 respectively, they joined him as part of his act.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">Robert 'B Q', a radio personality at KATZ in St. Louis, named the act (because of their ages) THE CRAWLERS.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">Alvin, unmarried, lives in Chicago. George and Robert, who are still attending Sumner High School, St. Louis, Missouri, commute to Chicago every weekend to work in various clubs, returning to St. Louis on Sunday for classes on Monday."</span><br /><br /><strong><em>- liner notes to Mar-V-Lus LP 1827, "Twine Time" released in 1965.<br /><br /></em></strong><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;" ></span><span style="font-family:Century Gothic,Arial,Helvetica;">The weather is still fine, and summer has not left us behind, it's time to dance but one thing is on my mind: <span style="font-size:130%;">How do you do The Twine?</span><br /><br />I don't know about you, but not having lived through the Sixties, and living far from the talcum powdered dancefloors of northern soul, I have immense difficulties in strutting my stuff. I hear a record, my body wants to move, but I am reduced to one of three options: propping up the bar for another pint; gyrating wildly in a freestyle form of funky James Brown dance which results in injuries for other dancers; or the intense, </span><span style="font-family:Century Gothic,Arial,Helvetica;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">solo dance, comprising lots of</span> </span><span style="font-family:Century Gothic,Arial,Helvetica;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">shuffling and spinning, that for some reason third-generation mods like me seem to think should accompany Green Onions.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">What I really would like to be able to do is to dance The Bop, The Watusi, The Cool Jerk, The Boston Monkey, The Birdland, The Sissy Strut, The Popeye, The Funky Penguin, or just Shake A Tailfeather. The trouble is, I have never actually come across anybody who knew how any of these dances go. I suppose there is the Twist, and the Mashed Potato, but surely things used to be more exciting than that? Where did all the dancers go? Nowadays, there seem to be more people interested in learning the foxtrot than in knowing what to do when somebody yells, "It's Twine Time!". When Land Of A Thousand Dances comes on, you'll find me propping up the bar again, watching other people go, </span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">"Well, I know how to , um, and do the .. well, ..."</span><br /></span></span><br />I am still no nearer to finding out just exactly how to dance the Twine. Maybe Sis Detroit can enlighten us?:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:Century Gothic,Arial,Helvetica;" >"<span style="font-family:georgia;">I was once in a boogaloo contest in a backyard party (twenty-five cents to enter the gate.) But I was a young teen-ager. When the jerk came out, I was an older teen, and I had slowed down a bit, but tried to hang in there. The twine was quite easy, but the older I got, the less I danced, and the more I just listened and observed."</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:Century Gothic,Arial,Helvetica;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">This sounds slightly reassuring, as I am now at the tender age of 34, and need to consider slipped discs, hernias etc.</span> <span style="font-family:georgia;">Meanwhile,</span> </span>Joe Nawrozki, a writer for the Baltimore Sun, attests to the powers of The Twine when far from home:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"I would see this again years later, stinky and scared young guys dancing to candlelight in a sandbagged Vietnam bunker, serenaded by a tropically-warped Temptations album. </span><i style="font-style: italic;">That</i><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">dancing was integrated [unlike in clubs in Baltimore] and I learned how to do the boomerang, shing-a-ling, the skate and the twine time. Dance was a brief connection with home for us, time out from the insanity of war."<br /><br /></span>So what is the story behind The Twine?<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:Century Gothic,Arial,Helvetica;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Alvin Cash</span> (real name Alvin Welch) was I believe the eldest of eight children. Alvin, Arthur, George, and Robert formed a song and dance act and called themselves The Four Steps or the The Step Brothers.</span><span style="font-family:georgia;"> </span>Alvin wanted to try to get into music, and encouraged his brothers to visit him in Chicago for dance gigs and competitions. As a dance group they were very successful. They renamed themselves The Crawlers, while Alvin formed a band of his own called the Nightlighters. It was while the Crawlers were dancing at the Budland Dance Club in Chicago that <span style="font-weight: bold;">Andre Williams</span> spotted them, and decided to try Alvin out at <span style="font-weight: bold;">Mar-V-Lus</span> back in Chicago.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><br />The other brothers in the Crawlers were not featured on the record that came out of this, Twine Time, written by Andre Williams and Verlie Rice, following on from the tune <span style="font-weight: bold;">Woodbine Twine</span> by <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Five Du-Tones</span>. All being much younger than Alvin, nobody could quite see how they would fit together as an r&amp;b group performing for adults. That is all bar one. While Andre was taken by Alvin's singing skills, flambouyancy and sharp, colourful dress sense, it is another brother, <span style="font-weight: bold;">George</span>, to whom much of the credit should go for crafting the dance we know as The Twine. Don on the Soulful Detroit forums recalls:<span style=";font-family:Century Gothic,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica;font-size:100%;" ><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:Century Gothic,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica;font-size:100%;" >George was the person who originated the dance moves named The Twine that Alvin adapted ...</span><span style=";font-family:Century Gothic,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica;font-size:100%;" ><span style="font-style: italic;"> Since George was a dancer he would make up the dance routines, or would make better routines out of any regions dance moves. If anyone ever saw Alvin Cash do a concert you know what I mean."</span></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><br />George was so talented he is alleged to have shown <span style="font-weight: bold;">Major Lance</span> and others how to improve their moves. Not only that, but despite his young age at the time, George was know locally as a remarkable drummer, playing with local group <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Vows</span>. He could even dance at the same time, and once, opening a concert for <span style="font-weight: bold;">Frank Sinatra</span> with the Four Steps, he was invited back on to play some drums by Frank himself, while tapping! According to Don, George's drumming was so good that <span style="font-style: italic;">"[it]...</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:Century Gothic,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica;font-size:100%;" > <span style="font-family:georgia;">even made Sammy Davis, Jr said wow!</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family:georgia;">"</span> </span>So it is George you can hear keeping the beat on The Twine Time and many other Alvin Cash recordings. Only trouble was, due to his age, George would have to be snuck into clubs and snuck back out again as soon as the set was over:<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">"</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:Century Gothic,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica;font-size:100%;" >Since George being young, he couldn't stand around or mingle in the area because he was underage, and would have to stay in the back before the shows began and during intermissions and after."</span><br /><br />While George was too young to latch onto the fame that went with Alvin Cash and The Registers, he went on to play drums with a number of groups, including Mothers' Finest, and continued playing with <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Vows</span>. He is married to Berniece Willis of <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Kittens</span>.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><span style=";font-family:Century Gothic,Verdana,Arial,Helvetica;font-size:100%;" ><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">Ladies and gentlemen, you don't need to check your watches, I'll tell you what time it is!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Alvin Cash &amp; The Registers - Twine Time (Mar-V-Lus 6002)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family: georgia;">Alvin Cash &amp; The Registers - Twine Awhile (from Mar-V-Lus MLP 1827)</span><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:Century Gothic,Arial,Helvetica;" ><br /><span style=";font-family:georgia;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Information from liner notes, and from the informative posts of Mel(andthensome), </span></span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:Century Gothic,Arial,Helvetica;" ><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sis Detroit, </span></span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:Century Gothic,Arial,Helvetica;" ><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Randy Russi, and </span></span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:Century Gothic,Arial,Helvetica;" ><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">most especially Don </span></span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:Century Gothic,Arial,Helvetica;" ><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">on the Soulful Detroit forums</span></span></span><strong><em><br /></em></strong> </div>Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26229591.post-22820940507578917192007-09-22T09:10:00.000+00:002008-12-11T12:14:27.333+00:00Chewing The Bacon Fat: Andre Williams<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RvakIjQ9mwI/AAAAAAAAAFc/RqT216qFI8I/s1600-h/andre7.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RvakIjQ9mwI/AAAAAAAAAFc/RqT216qFI8I/s320/andre7.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5113454893738072834" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" >Andre Williams</span><span style="font-family:georgia;"> began his career in music singing with groups like </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" >The Cavaliers</span><span style="font-family:georgia;"> in Chicago on creatively extended weekend furloughs from the Navy</span><span style="font-family:georgia;">, where he served alongside a young <span style="font-weight: bold;">Redd Foxx</span>, a</span><span style="font-family:georgia;">nd when he was discharged for being only 15, he tried his fortunes in Detroit - at the little </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" >Fortune Records</span><span style="font-family:georgia;"> label, located</span><span style="font-family:georgia;"> behi</span><span style="font-family:georgia;">nd a barbershop.<br /></span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RvYf1jQ9muI/AAAAAAAAAFM/CpW0fubecB8/s1600-h/fortune+records.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RvYf1jQ9muI/AAAAAAAAAFM/CpW0fubecB8/s320/fortune+records.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5113309431785691874" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:georgia;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Here is where he gained his opportunity to gain experience of song-writin</span><span style="font-family:georgia;">g, and more importan</span><span style="font-family:georgia;">tly, of studio production:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;" >"...not only figuring out how records was made, it brought me to the realization that I could write! I didn't have no prior musical training, but I could put those damn songs together in five or ten minutes."</span> <span style="font-family:georgia;"><br /><br />Andre got busy creating dozens of hit records, and he began each with the same concept in mind:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >" I'll tell you somethin' fellows, the first line of communications was the drums. That was in Africa, the Congos, the Mongos, and all them 'gos. When they was doin' communications, it was with the drums. So if I could get a drum rhythm which captivates people and put a hell of a story on top of it, I can't lose. And that's where I went."<br /></span><span style="font-family:georgia;"><br />That was the concept behind such hits at Fortune as <span style="font-weight: bold;">Bacon Fat</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Jail Bait</span>. Recorded in 1957, they stand out for their take on the seamy side of life, and for Williams vocal delivery. How did Bacon Fat's lyric come about?:<br /></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;" >"When I came up with "Bacon Fat" I was travelling from Detroit to Memphis. That's when I knew that I had to come up with a gimmick. So I stopped in Memphis and I got an egg and bacon sandwich - on toast! I'm driving and a lot of places where we used to travel, it was only a two lane highway so you'd see the cotton pickers on both sides and I'm driving and [starts tapping a beat on his thigh, starts humming] "Down in Tennessee... and the name of the dance is..." and I had the sandwich in my hand and there it came, "T</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;" >he Bacon Fat!"</span> <span style="font-family:georgia;"><br /><br />As for the talking style, often cited as a forerunner of rap, it came partly from necessity, and partly from Andre spotting how to make his own mark:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;" >"With all these guys singing acapella, I knew I couldn't cut the mustard with that. I've always been a survivor; I've always been able to look ahead and see disaster coming. I said to myself, "Andre, you gon' have to come up with a gimmick, or these people are gonna spot you, and you gonna go down the tubes, because you cannot sing like these people. You ain't no Clyde McPhatter, you ain't no Nolan Strong, you ain't Pookie Hudson, you cannot sing like these guys. You gotta come up with somethin'...Nobody knew that I was gonna talk this record...They pressed the record and, bingo, that was it! I said, "Okay, now I got it; now the only</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;" > thing I got to do is talk about all these bad times that I had, and I should be able to have me a lengthy career."</span><br /><br />Sadly, according to the research of <a href="http://home.att.net/%7Emarvart/5Dollars/5dollars.html"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Marv Goldberg</span></span></a>, who has interviewed many of the people involved, Bacon Fat did not lead to fame and fortune for all of its participants. For the singing group <span style="font-weight: bold;">The 5 Dollars</span>, for whom Andre was supposedly a nominal fifth member, and who had written the tune and sung the backing vocals, it threw fat on the fire in their relationship with Fortune. When the record actually was released, it was no longer Andre Williams and The Five Dollars (or even 'The Don Juans', the pseudonym Andre had encouraged them to adopt for some of their recordings and shows - wearing handkerchief masks) but Andre Williams &amp; His New Group - and the backing voices were somebody else. They belonged to another Detroit group, <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Dexatones</span>. The original take with the 5 Dollars does somewhere exist, since Fortune Records used to keep the tapes running constantly to capture anything they might use for a quick release. However, the version we all know is the one released on Columbia/Epic.<br /><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;">In 1961, he met up with <span style="font-weight: bold;">Berry Gordy</span>, and was hired to act as both an A&amp;R man, writer and producer. It seems to have been a kind of love-hate relationship!:<br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;" >"I could never conform to his way of doing business, and I could never be a yes-man and suck up to him, so he fired me! But when he'd fire me, then he'd get a guilty conscience or something, and he call me back. I'd go back and work maybe six or seven months, then mess up again and he'd fire me again …"</span> <span style="font-family:georgia;">Despite the temporary disagreements over business, Gordy could not deny the genius that Andre brougth to Motown, and Andre produced dozens of hits for the likes of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Mary Wells</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Contours</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Stevie Wonder</span>, and later for groups like <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Chi-Lites</span>.</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" ><br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RvakQTQ9mxI/AAAAAAAAAFk/6ED3IVFBCFs/s1600-h/alvin+cash+%26+The+crawlers+or+registers.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RvakQTQ9mxI/AAAAAAAAAFk/6ED3IVFBCFs/s320/alvin+cash+%26+The+crawlers+or+registers.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5113455026882059026" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:georgia;">So when </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" >Andre Williams</span><span style="font-family:georgia;"> knew when he encountered </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" >Alvin Cash</span><span style="font-family:georgia;"> and his brothers in the Budland Dance Club, he knew that he had another vehicle for</span><span style="font-family:georgia;"> his unique style of rhythm-heavy, direct vocals r&amp;b, and the Cash brothers should have realised their good fortune. Sadly, it seems that Alvin Cash didn't feel the same about his mentor. Andre Williams explains in an interview with </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" >Joss Hutton</span><span style="font-family:georgia;"> for </span><a style="font-family: georgia;" href="http://www.furious.com/PERFECT/andrewilliams.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">furious.com</span></a><span style="font-family:georgia;"> in 2001:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;" >" </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >I wrote the song ["Shake A Tailfeather"] originally for the Five Du-Tones, a vocal band and I also recorded it with Alvin Cash (and the Registers). I also did "Twine Time" with him. When I cut Alvin and I got a hit on him, the same way the American system works, the white boys moved in and he chose a white producer. You know, "We're gonna make you a star, why don't you go with us?" and then, when comes session time, Alvin doesn't want Andre to produce it. What a dumb motherfucker! I mean, I would've always stuck with the cat that got me there in the first place! But he wanted to go with them. Alvin needs producing 'cause there's no talent there, he's just a voice on a record you know!"</span> <span style="font-family:georgia;">Even if Alvin didn't realise what Andre could do with a record, others like Berry Gordy, watching a Williams song hit for another label, certainly did!:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;" >"Berry'd send a telegram sayin', "Come back to Detroit!" (la</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;" >ughs) You know? Everytime I'd catch a hit like "Twine Time," he'd send for me, because he didn't want his soldiers out there. He was a selfish cat."</span> <p style="font-style: italic; font-family: georgia;"> </p><span style="font-family:georgia;">Andre Williams took that genius for hit-making on to <span style="font-weight: bold;">Chess</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Duke-Peacock</span> before things got out of his control after a gruelling 18-month stint working with <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ike Turner</span> led to a spiral of drug addiction, and eventually saw Andre homeless. In the mid 90s, Andre Williams was back recording.</span><span style="font-family:georgia;"> On his latest album in an ongoing career, Andre hired guitarist </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" >Bobby Quine</span><span style="font-family:georgia;">. Bobby Quine is quoted as saying: </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;" >"Now I've worked with two geniuses: Lou Reed and Andre Williams."<br /><br />Funny he should say that...<br /></span> <span style="font-family:georgia;">Williams idiosyncratic vocal delivery seems to have had an influence in one of the unlikeliest of places. A young guitar player from Long Island, soon to make his way to New York City to become a company songwriter for Pickwick Records in the Brill Building, absorbed a great deal of ideas and techniques from listening to songs like Bacon Fa</span><span style="font-family:georgia;">t and Jail Bait. </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" >Lou Reed</span><span style="font-family:georgia;">, soon to form the avante-garde rock band </span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-family:georgia;" >The Velvet Underground</span><span style="font-family:georgia;">, adopted some of Andre's style for almost improvisational lyrics, lacsadaiacal delivery, slurring and deadpan asides. You can hear Andre's laid back </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;" >'Lord have mercy!'</span><span style="font-family:georgia;"> from Bacon Fat echoed on Lou's 'Temptation Inside Of Your Heart' along with a whole background of extemporisation, and the word association of Jail Bait is echoed in 'Murder Mystery'. </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:georgia;" >'She looks so good, just like a young girl should'</span><span style="font-family:georgia;"> is used by Lou in one of his live numbers 'Sweet Bonnie Brown'. If the only band The Velvet Underground ever wanted to be able to play like was Booker T &amp; The MGs, then Lou wanted to be singing in front like Andre Williams.<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RvYj-TQ9mvI/AAAAAAAAAFU/1SAiDvqcOyk/s1600-h/5+dollars+reunion+199.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RvYj-TQ9mvI/AAAAAAAAAFU/1SAiDvqcOyk/s320/5+dollars+reunion+199.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5113313980156058354" border="0" /></a><span style="font-family:georgia;">Andre continues recording. The Five Dollars had a well-recieved reunion in 1999. Sadly, in 2006, pianist Joe Weaver, featured on Bacon Fat, passed away.</span><br /><span style="font-family:georgia;"><br />Well, I've been chewing the fat for long enough. Now it's your turn:<br /></span><a href="http://www.savefile.com/files/1074964"><span style=";font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" ><br /></span></a><span style=";font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Andre Williams - Bacon Fat (Fortune/Epic) 1957</span></span><br /><span style=";font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span><span style=";font-family:trebuchet ms;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >All Andre Williams quotes are taken from an interview with <span style="font-size:130%;">Joss Hutton</span> for </span><span style="font-size:100%;"><a style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;" href="http://www.furious.com/PERFECT/andrewilliams.html">furious.com</a><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> , and from an interview by <span style="font-size:130%;">Dan Epstein</span> for <a href="http://www.ugly-things.com/andre.html">Ugly Things</a> magazine. <span style="font-size:130%;"> John Nova Lomax</span> at <a href="http://www.clevescene.com/2005-06-22/music/the-black-godfather/">Cleveland Scene</a> magazine has also collated together several other Andre Williams interviews from recent years. The story behind the story of the recording of Bacon Fat, and the role of the The 5 Dollars, is revealed in full by <span style="font-size:130%;">Marv Goldberg</span>, in another one of his fabulous <a href="http://home.att.net/%7Emarvart/5Dollars/5dollars.html">R&amp;B Notebooks</a>. 5 Dollars photos belong to Marv Goldberg and to group member <span style="font-size:130%;">Charlie Evans</span>. ALvin Cash photo shared by Mel(andthensome) on SOulful Detroit forum.</span></span><a style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;" href="http://www.furious.com/PERFECT/andrewilliams.html"><br /></a></span>Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26229591.post-25633826032800409622007-10-06T07:57:00.000+00:002008-12-11T12:14:26.359+00:00More Soul Britannia: The Chants Of Liverpool 8<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RwfgOhe1C_I/AAAAAAAAAGU/iG5EQ5buLQ8/s1600-h/chants.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RwfgOhe1C_I/AAAAAAAAAGU/iG5EQ5buLQ8/s320/chants.jpg" alt="The Chants In 1963" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5118306041640324082" border="0" /></a>Time for some more Soul Britannia, and we are returning to Toxteth, Liverpool, to continue the story of <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Chants</span>...<br /><br />As the excellent <a href="http://www.geocities.com/soulpooluk/index.html"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Soulpool</span></span></a> website explains, and as discussed in a <a href="http://browneyedhandsomeman.blogspot.com/2007/02/soul-britannia-soulpool.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">previous post</span></a>, the musical heritage of Liverpool and the origins of the Merseybeat explosion have deep roots. Some of those roots were drawing nutrients from the singing groups and bands of Toxteth, Liverpool 8, an area of Liverpool with a large Caribbean population long pre-dating the Windrush generation. Local halls such as <strong>the Ni</strong><strong>gerian</strong>, <strong>the Sierra Leone</strong>, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Stanley House</span>, the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Rialto Ballroom</span>, and <strong>the All Nations</strong>, built by the Toxteth community, or the <strong>White House</strong> pub, were popular venues for local people to hear r&amp;b, and a big draw to black GIs from RAF Burtonwood. Some of the key r&amp;b acts of the late 50s and early 60s - <span style="font-weight: bold;">Derry Wilkie, Sugar Dean </span>and<span style="font-weight: bold;"> Colin Areety, The Sobells, The Conquests, The Poppies </span>and<span style="font-weight: bold;"> The Chants</span> - all came from Toxteth.<strong></strong><br /><br />It was in this environment that <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Shades</span> - <span style=";font-family:Verdana;font-size:100%;" >Joe and Edmund Ankrah, Nat Smeda, Alan Harding and Eddie Amoo</span> - honed their craft, enough to be noticed by the young and eager <span style="font-weight: bold;">Paul McCartney</span>, who met Joe Ankrah in a New Brighton ballroom, and invited them to come along to <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Cavern</span>. The other Beatles were equally enthusiastic, and they decided to play behind as the backing band. The response from the audience was enough to convince Epstein to sign the renamed <span style="font-weight: bold;">Chants</span>, but it would not be the magical mystery tour of fame that they had expected. Rather, they would take the long and winding road to the real thing...<br /><br />Despite Epstein's management, nothing seemed to happen for The Chants through early 1963, and as they continued to miss the wave of the Mersey Sound, they managed to convince a clearly-disinterested Epstein to release them from their contract. They had to go to Manchester to find <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ted Ross</span>, who arranged a record deal with <span style="font-weight: bold;">Pye Records</span> in London in April 1963. Such a journey to find musical success was not at all unusual in the British music industry, which was overwhelmingly centred on the capital for many decades. It would, however, leave The Chants particularly isolated from the musical influences and musicians that underpinned their vision for themselves.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Chants - I Could Write A Book</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Chants - I Don't Care</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">Pye Records, a big industry hitter which was trying to embrace this new youth fashion for 'beat' music, were not an r&amp;b label. </span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">'They had no idea what to do with a black doo-wop group, they just had no idea.'</span> recalled Eddie Amoo in an interview. While other r&amp;b groups, for example The Kinks, could turn up at Pye and just start playing the way they wanted to sound, The</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> Chants, as a harmony singing group, su</span><span style="font-size:100%;">ffered from the need to rely upon the hired musicians and arrangements designed by people unfamiliar with all of the nuances of doo-wop and r&amp;b. Eddie in another interview explained the impact this had upon them:<br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >"But in that era - late </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >60s, the very early 70s - most black bands in this country that were recorded were recorded like white bands, and they sounded like white bands. They used to record The Chants like a white pop band, which we weren't. We weren't musically adept enough in them days to establish what we really wanted ourselves - we weren't musicians then."</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-size:100%;">Eddie talks with some bitterness about this upon the career of The Chants, but at the end of the day, the other musicians could only bring the influences they had to the table, and that seems to have extended only as afar as the latest releases of the 'beat' and 'mod' scene - r&amp;b influenced, to be sure, but too adulterated for what The Chants wanted. You do sense that Eddie is directing</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> his ire more at their manage</span><span style="font-size:100%;">ment and at A&amp;R at Pye itself, who either from benign ignorance, or paternal condescension, did not put enough thought into how The Chants wo</span><span style="font-size:100%;">rked best, and didn't hire the kind of arranger and band that would have made a difference. <span style="font-size:100%;">With P</span><span style="font-size:100%;">y</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;">e unaware of The Chants best interests, as Eddie admitted, they were also too inexperienced to know how to ask for what they wanted.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RweMSBe1C6I/AAAAAAAAAFs/Kb5vmK2_-QM/s1600-h/Chants+in+late+60s.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RweMSBe1C6I/AAAAAAAAAFs/Kb5vmK2_-QM/s320/Chants+in+late+60s.jpg" alt="The Chants around 1968" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5118213742793132962" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-size:100%;">So, during the 1960s, yo</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-size:100%;">u can hear the sound of The Chants changing with the dominant </span>trends of 60s British pop, and changing accompaniment, f</span><span style="font-size:100%;">rom Merseybeat </span><span style="font-size:100%;">ballads to psychedelic-tinged pop in t</span><span style="font-size:100%;">he late 60s. Live, they continued to attract a loyal following, regularly performing at venues such as The Twisted Wheel in Manchester and touring Europe, where they played alongside <span style="font-weight: bold;">Curtis Mayfield</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Four Tops</span> at US Army bases in Germany. Whatever they tried, however, they still could </span><span style="font-size:100%;">not break into the pop market for commercial success. It is n</span><span style="font-size:100%;">ot entirely clear that even if they had hit the magic formula, that they would have profitted from that success. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Geno Washington</span>, who despite low single sales made a success of a series of 'live' albums, cashing in on his immense popularity on the live circuit, became embroilled in a legal fight over the royalties he was owed by </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Pye, a battle he lost and saw him bow out at the end of the 60s.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RwfaXhe1C8I/AAAAAAAAAF8/PSeB-E6_pjA/s1600-h/bessie+braddock+20th+April+1954.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RwfaXhe1C8I/AAAAAAAAAF8/PSeB-E6_pjA/s200/bessie+braddock+20th+April+1954.jpg" alt="'Battling Bessie' Braddock, long-time campaigning MP for Liverpool Exchange." id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5118299599189380034" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-size:100%;">In their singles of the late 60s, The Chants developed messages into a number of their songs, per</span><span style="font-size:100%;">haps in part inspired by the problems and barriers they had tried to overcome in their car</span><span style="font-size:100%;">eer. For the community of Toxteth, they continued to be feted, and in particular, local MP, 'Battling' Bessie Braddock, had strongly supported them ever since their first recording.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:180%;">The Chants - Progress</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;">The Chants - You Don't Know What I Know</span></span><br /><br />Throughout</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> all of this, The Chants had to also make a living. Increasingly, they took bookings to perform less at the cuttin</span><span style="font-size:100%;">g edge of soul, and more on the cabaret circuit of popular standards mixed with a few of their Mersey hits. This way, the rest of the Chants could continue in music and put food on the table</span><span style="font-size:100%;">, but for Eddie Amoo, it was not what he had dreamt of. He began to perform less and less with The Chants, and made his way back to Toxteth, where he discovered a new possibility unexpectedly close to home. His younger brother Chris had formed his own band...<br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:100%;" >"The Real Thing started out with three people, then went to five, then they dropped two out and by 1975 they'd become a trio - Ray, Dave and Chris. But by then Chris [Amoo] and I had started to write together. I wrote the first three Real Thing singles. I was still with The Chants, but I was writing for The Real Thing, because The Chants were no longer a vehicle for the songs I was writing - The Chants were doing cabaret, and The Real Thing were able to play these songs live, so I was writing and giving the songs to Chris."<br /><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RwfdeBe1C-I/AAAAAAAAAGM/1QtN8UM5-MI/s1600-h/Real-Thing-8.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RwfdeBe1C-I/AAAAAAAAAGM/1QtN8UM5-MI/s320/Real-Thing-8.jpg" alt="Eddie Amoo, Chris Amoo, Ray Lake, Dave Smith(and Kenny Davis, not pictured)" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5118303009393413090" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Real Thing</span> were more fortunate than The Chants had been in that they were able to secure the servic</span><span style="font-size:100%;">es of some people with experience of soul music, in the form of songwriter Ken Gold, who had written songs for</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Areth</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">a Franklin</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Jackie Wilson</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Eugene Record</span>, and producers such as <span style="font-weight: bold;">Jerome Rimson</span>, who had played with <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Detroit Emeralds</span>, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Hugh Masekela</span> and others. They also had the experience of Eddie Amoo, who wrote many of The Real Thing hits with his brother, to steer them away from decisions that might stymie their career.<br /><br />Such considerations were important, for essentially, the mass commercial appeal of 'soul music' had begun to dissappear not long after the 'mod' heyday of 1965-66, and by 1967, new influences focused more on the psychedelic scene had taken their place in British youth culture. It is important to remember that youth cultures in those times were not fuelled by 20 and 30-somethings living an ete</span><span style="font-size:100%;">rnal youth, but by teenagers just entering the world of work. In 1970, 95% of people under the age of 45 in Britain were married, and embarking on a new family life, which did not involve following the latest musical trends. An entire generation who had been inspired somewhat by soul music had essentially 'grown up' and settled down, sometimes casually tuning into Tony Blackburn on Radio 2 to hear</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> some old Motown hits. It wa</span><span style="font-size:100%;">sn't until the mid 70s that a new disco-influenced soul began make an impression on the record-buying public, who were by then a quite different generation of teenagers.<br /><br />This time, the band set out deliberately to write those hit records, and they succeeded time after time, with classic disco soul like <span style="font-weight: bold;">You To Me Are Everything</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Can You Feel The Force</span> in which even <span style="font-weight: bold;">Pye Records</span> could not fail to see the potential. Beneath the surface of success, however, the band yearned to venture further into funk and to write lyrics with a wider meaning. By the mid 70s, racial tensions in Toxteth were building to levels not experienced since 1948, despite the outlawing of</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> overt racial discrimination The Race Relations Act.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Britain was in the midst of yet another period of economic decline after a short respite of the early 70s, </span><span style="font-size:100%;">Merseyside itself was suffering a major slump, </span><span style="font-size:100%;">and many people looked around for easy explanations. </span><span style="font-size:100%;">While small in actual number, the National Front were a prominent and highly vocal group, and their activities in the mid 1970s validated a much larger swathe of petty prejudices amongst white Britons. L</span><span style="font-size:100%;">evels of unemployment were higher in Liverpool 8 than in the surr</span><span style="font-size:100%;">ounding districts, as people struggled. Housing, welfare and education in Toxteth was maintained badly by a bankrupt</span><span style="font-size:100%;">ed council increasingly preoccupied by ideological disputes about socialism.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> Meanwhile, Merseyside Police were becoming increasingly heavy-handed with the application of stop and search powers. </span><span style="font-size:100%;">It was in this environment that The Real Thing wro</span><span style="font-size:100%;">te their masterpiece, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Children Of The Ghetto</span>. Sadly, the song's call for action to change conditions were ignored, and political interest in the difficulties of Liverpool 8 would only be pricked by the Toxteth Riots in 1981.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:180%;"> <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Real Thing - Liverpool Medley: Liverpool 8/Children Of The Ghetto/Stanhope Street</span></span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RwfdHBe1C9I/AAAAAAAAAGE/W_h_4X8soZ4/s1600-h/Joe+Ankrah+opens+the+Joe+hill+Art+Gallery+in+Kirkby+1st+May+2007.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RwfdHBe1C9I/AAAAAAAAAGE/W_h_4X8soZ4/s200/Joe+Ankrah+opens+the+Joe+hill+Art+Gallery+in+Kirkby+1st+May+2007.jpg" alt="Joe Ankrah at a recent Art In Liverpool event opening a new local gallery" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5118302614256421842" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RwfmQhe1DAI/AAAAAAAAAGc/GUa7Z8OPNJ4/s1600-h/real+thing.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RwfmQhe1DAI/AAAAAAAAAGc/GUa7Z8OPNJ4/s200/real+thing.jpg" alt="The Real Thing Today: Chris Amoo, Eddie Amoo and Dave Smith" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5118312673069829122" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-size:100%;">Today, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Joe Ankrah</span>, who also left The Chants in the 1970s to perform with <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ashanti</span></span><span style="font-size:100%;"> with brother Edmund</span><span style="font-size:100%;">, is a respected artist,</span><span style="font-size:100%;"> working and living in Liverpool 8. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Eddie</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Chris Amoo</span> still tour with The Real Thing. Bizarrely, one of their former tour bassists, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Des Tong</span>, went on to for</span><span style="font-size:100%;">m a computer company, and devised some of the motion-capture technology that is used in film and animation today.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RwfvaBe1DBI/AAAAAAAAAGk/u8OKQKl8_7k/s1600-h/real+thing+cd.bmp"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RwfvaBe1DBI/AAAAAAAAAGk/u8OKQKl8_7k/s200/real+thing+cd.bmp" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5118322731883236370" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Information about the Chants came from excellent articles by <a href="http://triumphpc.com/mersey-beat/a-z/chants.shtml">Bill Harry</a>, <a href="http://www.sadcafe.co.uk/destong.htm">Des Tong</a>, and The <a href="http://www.geocities.com/soulpooluk/index.html">Soulpool</a> website. Bessie Braddock photo by Bert Hardy/Getty Images. Chants photos courtesy of Bill Harry and Des Tong. <a href="http://www.davehaslam.com/control.php?_command=/DISPLAY/16/13//1500/12033">Dave Haslam</a> has written a particularly good article and interview with Eddie Amoo about The Real Thing. You can buy <span style="font-size:130%;">"The Real Thing: Children Of The Ghetto - Greatest Hits"</span> direct from itunes.</span></span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span></span>Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26229591.post-17946774966717907122007-10-14T12:24:00.000+00:002008-12-11T12:14:25.179+00:00Isaac On His First Go Round: Sir Isaac & The Doo-Dads<span style="font-style: italic;">In 1962, </span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Isaac Hayes</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> was graduating Manassas High School in Memphis, and contemplating whether to find a way to study for his early ambition of becoming a doctor, find a steady job at a local meat-packing company to support his young family, or to pursue a career in music...</span><br /><br />After a guidance counsellor at school had persuaded him to enter a talent concert, which he won by singing Nat King Cole's "Looking Back", Isaac had begun to learn the baritone and alto sax with <span style="font-weight: bold;">Lucian Coleman</span>, and had begun to make contacts with some of Memphis' premier musicians, whom he would watch as they turned up to play at the clubs on <span style="font-weight: bold;">Thomas Street</span> in the 'North Chicago' district of Memphis.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RxIsURe1DFI/AAAAAAAAAHE/0v-YJh74C6M/s1600-h/Inside+Currie%27s+in+1955.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RxIsURe1DFI/AAAAAAAAAHE/0v-YJh74C6M/s200/Inside+Currie%27s+in+1955.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5121204453075389522" border="0" /></a>In 1961, in one version of the story, he impressed respected band leader <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ben Branc</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">h</span> while singing "The Very Thought Of You" by Arthur Prysock, after being snuck into <span style="font-weight: bold;">Currie's Club Tropicana</span>, and sang three nights a week with the band for the next two years - backed by Branch, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Floyd Newman</span> on alto sax, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Emerson Able</span> on tenor sax, Larry Brown on bass guitar, Eddie Jones on piano, Herbert Thomas and Herman Green on trumpets, Big Bell James on drums, and Clarence Nelson on guitar. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RxItlxe1DGI/AAAAAAAAAHM/yT19BVk1yDk/s1600-h/howard+grimes.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RxItlxe1DGI/AAAAAAAAAHM/yT19BVk1yDk/s200/howard+grimes.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5121205853234728034" border="0" /></a>However, in another version of the story, told by band-member and eye-witness <span style="font-weight: bold;">Howard 'Bulldog' Grimes</span> over here at the amazing blog <a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://memphissound.blogspot.com/search/label/Currie%27s%20Club%20Tropicana">Lost And Found: The Memphis Sound</a>, it was thanks to the rest of the band and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Mr Johnnie Currie</span>, the club owner, and a lot of shouting in the kitchen, that Ben Branch even allowed Isaac up on stage! As it turned out, Ben had been wrong, and Isaac was a great hit, singing Brook Benton's "Just A Matter Of Time"!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RxIl0Be1DEI/AAAAAAAAAG8/EnzKL70HVzQ/s1600-h/emerson+able.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RxIl0Be1DEI/AAAAAAAAAG8/EnzKL70HVzQ/s320/emerson+able.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5121197301954841666" border="0" /></a>Isaac also sang gospel with <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Morning Stars</span>, and doo-wop with <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Ambassadors</span>, The <span style="font-weight: bold;">Teen Tones</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Missiles</span>, played r&amp;b with <span style="font-weight: bold;">Calvin &amp; the Swing Cats</span>, before graduating, and his singing was so good that he had been offered many college scholarships to study vocal music. Amongst those who had encouraged Isaac at the school was <span style="font-weight: bold;">Emerson Able</span>, school band teacher and tenor sax player with Ben Branch, who is featured here at <a href="http://memphissound.blogspot.com/2007/05/emerson-able-heart-attack.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Lost And Found: The Memphis Sound</span></a>, and is recovering from a recent heart attack. At one point, the story goes, Emerson actually kicked Isaac out of the school band to get him to focus more, perhaps to remind him that playing nights wit Ben Branch and himself wasn't going to be enough without an education! <span style="font-weight: bold;">Manassas High School</span> is where Isaac Hayes chose to place his historical marker, in thanks for the encouragement they gave him. He continues to support the school in many ways, including attending events during Black History Month <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">(in the photo below Isaac is standing with Dr Linkwood Williams, one of the original Tuskegee Airmen, the African-American pilots and officers of WWII)</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RxIjvBe1DDI/AAAAAAAAAG0/xCpVgflvCso/s1600-h/Dr+Linkwood+Williams+%28WWII+Tuskegee+Airman%29+%26+Isaac+Hayes+at+Manassas+2005.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RxIjvBe1DDI/AAAAAAAAAG0/xCpVgflvCso/s320/Dr+Linkwood+Williams+%28WWII+Tuskegee+Airman%29+%26+Isaac+Hayes+at+Manassas+2005.jpg" alt="Isaac Hayes with Dr Linkwood Williams, one of the original Tuskegee Airmen, at Manassas High School, Black History Month 2005" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5121195017032240178" border="0" /></a><br /><br />However, in need of money, he had to turn them all down and started work full-time at the processing plant. It was only by chance that Isaac heard of an opportunity to perhaps continue in music. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Sidney Kirk</span> persuaded him to go down to <span style="font-weight: bold;">Chips Moman's American Sound Studios</span> for an audition for Chip's new <span style="font-weight: bold;">Youngstown Records</span> label.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sir Isaac &amp; The Doodads - Laura, We're On Our Last Go-Round (A-side) </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Youngstown </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1962</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sir Isaac &amp; The Doodads - Sweet Temptation (B-side) </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Youngstown </span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">1962</span></span><br /><br />Moman decided to record them performing <span style="font-weight: bold;">Laura, We're On Our Last Go-Round</span> by Patti Ferguson, and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Sweet Temptations</span> by Merle Travis. The band was Isaac on vocals, Sidney on piano, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ronnie Capo</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">ne</span> on drums, and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Tommy Cogbill</span> on bass, while apparently, those sweet, tempting backing singers are in fact Isaac himself on an overdub. Isaac's singing on Laura demonstrates a purity and honesty in his tenor range, while Sweet Tmeptation begins to reveal the earthiness and allure possed by his baritone voice, which would later become his trademark. Sadly, the record went nowhere at the time, but Isaac Hayes turned up nearly every evening after work to learn more about recording from Chip, and hoping to get more work, perhaps as a backing singer or saxophonist. Just before Christmas, Sidney Kirk decided to quit music and go into the Air Force. And it was ironically the loss of his partner that set Isaac Hayes on the route to success. Fanny Kirk phoned him just before New Year to see if he knew a piano player for the New Year's Eve party at The Southern Club. Getting desperate for money, Isaac found himself saying that he would play the gig:<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"After I accepted it, I broke into a cold sweat ... I was scared to death. I said "What am I doing? I don't know how to play piano. They gonna kill me!"<br /><br /><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=XLdsRwpZ9oYC&amp;pg=PA54&amp;lpg=PA54&amp;dq=%22laura+we+re+on+our+last+go+round%22&amp;source=web&amp;ots=RR7gqNpQiH&amp;sig=Ay8DX8LRhbnkT9bm_WnrEYG8GtY#PPA54,M1"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Read what happen</span></a></span><span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://books.google.com/books?id=XLdsRwpZ9oYC&amp;pg=PA54&amp;lpg=PA54&amp;dq=%22laura+we+re+on+our+last+go+round%22&amp;source=web&amp;ots=RR7gqNpQiH&amp;sig=Ay8DX8LRhbnkT9bm_WnrEYG8GtY#PPA54,M1"><span style="font-weight: bold;">ed next here from an excerpt of Rob Bowman's Soulville USA: The Story of Stax Records...</span></a></span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.soulsvilleusa.com/shop/detail.asp?prod_id=145&amp;cat_id=2"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RxIbEhe1DCI/AAAAAAAAAGs/Q9mNJnbtIk4/s200/soulsvilleusa.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5121185490794777634" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.soulsvilleusa.com/shop/detail.asp?prod_id=145&amp;cat_id=2"><span style="font-size:180%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Buy Soulsville USA. Now!</span></span></a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Information and photos for this post come courtesy of <span style="font-size:130%;">Rob Bowman's</span> research, and the dedication of <span style="font-size:130%;">Scott</span> and <span style="font-size:130%;">Preston Lauterbach</span> at <span style="font-size:130%;"><a href="http://memphissound.blogspot.com/">Lost And Found: The Memphis Sound</a></span>. The recordings here are from a reissue by San American records (#950), of Little Rock Arkansas, where Joe Lee was sound engineer and did some work with Allen Orange in the 70s. Go over to the </span><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://souldetective.blogspot.com/">Soul Detective</a></span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> to read more about this...</span>Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26229591.post-22325038310805743112007-10-18T17:51:00.000+00:002008-12-11T12:14:24.516+00:0099 1/2 Just Won't Do: Brown Eyed Has Got To 100!<span style="font-style: italic;">I have let another milestone pass me by... my post about </span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">The Chants</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> was in fact my 100th published post.! With all of the half-started posts strewn in my blogger dashboard, I never realised...</span><br /><br />To help me celebrate it, here is the late, the great, the wicked <span style="font-weight: bold;">Wilson Pickett</span>, to sing that ode to perfection, 99 1/2 Won't Do. I just hope 102 is enough! Accompanying him, <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Alabama Christian Movement For Human Rights Choir</span> sing the hymn and freedom song from which Pickett, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Eddie Floyd</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Steve Cropper</span> took their inspiration.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/Rxkgdhe1DHI/AAAAAAAAAHU/hy2w6yEVOkw/s1600-h/carlton+reese.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/Rxkgdhe1DHI/AAAAAAAAAHU/hy2w6yEVOkw/s320/carlton+reese.jpg" alt="Carlton Reese" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5123161742686620786" border="0" /></a>In the summer of 1963, in the midst of the gruelling Birmingham, Alabama protests co-ordinated by <span style="font-weight: bold;">Rev Fred Shuttlesworth</span> of the ACMHR and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Rev Martin Luther King</span> of the SCLC, the Alabama Christian Movement Choir perfomed nightly at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in support of the protests. According to historian <span style="font-weight: bold;">Wilson Fallin Jr</span>: <span style="font-style: italic;">"In two organizations within the ACMHR, women made up the majority of the members. The ACMHR choir, formed in 1960, was intended to enhance the spirituality of the Monday night meetings. Twenty-three members formed the group. Most were Baptist women who sang in their church choirs and were accustomed</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> to singing songs similar to those sung by the movement choir, including spirituals and gospel hymns. They sang "God Will Make a Way Some How," Walk with me Lord," and "Ninety-Nine and a Half Won't Do." One member of the choir remarked that "the choir sang with faith in God knowing that his power worked through their songs to give courage." In the mass meetings, female singers allowed their emotions to take over, and on many occasions, they had to be restrained by the ushers."</span><br /><br />Choir conductor <span style="font-weight: bold;">Carlton Reese</span> adapted the lyrics to add new civil-rights phrases to a popular gospel song sung by <span style="font-weight: bold;">Mother Katie Bell Nubin</span> (mother of even more famous <span style="font-weight: bold;">Sister Rosetta Tharpe</span>). Reese is leading the singing, backed by a powerful thumping Hammond organ. This version was recorded by folk singer <span style="font-weight: bold;">Guy Carawan</span>. The recording served a dual purpose, giving nightly hope and strength to those taking part in the protest, but also as a conscious element of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Project C</span>, a strategy to confront the racialist system of segregation in the city head-on in a high-visibility strategy that would engage the entire nation. The singers themselves faced intimidation and arrest. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Cleopatra Kennedy</span> was 20 years old in 1963 when she sang solos for the choir. She recalls what it was like the first time she was sent to jail: <span style="font-style: italic;">"That first time, she was in jail for 14 days, but the group sang songs and stomped their feet on the iron beds to make their music. "Singing songs was our way of keeping our self-esteem up, of washing away fear," she says. The day after she was released, she went back on the picket line."</span> When Martin Luther King was arrested and jailed in April of that year, local liberal white church leaders wrote to him urging him to tone down the movement's activities, calling them "unwise and untimely". His response was the famous <span style="font-weight: bold;">L</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">e</span><span style="font-weight: bold;">tter From A Birmingham Jail</span>, with his powerful riposte: <span style="font-style: italic;">"For years now I have heard the word "Wait!" It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This "Wait" has almost always meant 'Never." </span><span>The situation would beco</span><span>me even more ense later in that year, with the use of dogs and fire hoses against student and youth protestors, and the bombing of the 16th Street Church during a Sunday school session, with the tragic death of four children. It was in trying times like these that freedom songs could give hope and inspiration.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RxoDMBe1DII/AAAAAAAAAHc/aqWYPFbQ4PA/s1600-h/jerry+wexler+%26+wilson+pickett.jpeg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RxoDMBe1DII/AAAAAAAAAHc/aqWYPFbQ4PA/s200/jerry+wexler+%26+wilson+pickett.jpeg" alt="Jerry Wexler &amp; Wilson Pickett" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5123411031178415234" border="0" /></a>Jump forward in time two years, to May 1965. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Wilson Pickett</span> arrived in Memphis courtesy of <span style="font-weight: bold;">Jerry Wexler</span>, who was sure that The Little Label That Could had the spark he needed to secure Pickett, former member of <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Falcons</span>, an elusive r&amp;b hit. Pickett sat down with <span style="font-weight: bold;">Steve Cropper</span>, and within a matter of half-an-hour, they had come up with <span style="font-weight: bold;">In The Midnight Hour</span> and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Don't Fight It</span>, both taking the behind-the-beat Stax sound in a new direction by incorporating a behind-the-beat 'Jerk' rhythm. Not a bad night's work! So pleased was he with the sessions, that he sent each of the MGs a $100 thank-you gift.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RxoDzhe1DJI/AAAAAAAAAHk/yvenqaY_PAQ/s1600-h/eddie+floyd.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RxoDzhe1DJI/AAAAAAAAAHk/yvenqaY_PAQ/s200/eddie+floyd.jpg" alt="Eddie Floyd publicity photo" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5123411709783248018" border="0" /></a>Wexler and Pickett were eager to return in October and again in December 1965. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Eddie Floyd</span>, Wilson's old partner from The Falcons, Steve Cropper, keen to earn some more songwriting money, and <span style="font-weight: bold;">Donald Dunn</span>, impressed with Pickett's vocal ability, were all pleased to see him again. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Jim Stewart</span> was less keen, perhaps fearful that Atlantic Records were borrowing too much of the Stax sound. The MGs were joined this time by <span style="font-weight: bold;">Isaac Hayes</span>, brought in to play piano while <span style="font-weight: bold;">Booker T Jones</span> was at college. The new sessions were more difficult, as the group felt the pressure to reproduce what they had achieved in May. Nervous about the prospect, Steve Cropper turned to the experienced Eddie Floyd for advice about songwriting. Cropper said in an interview with <span style="font-weight: bold;">Gerry Hershey</span>: <span style="font-style: italic;">"He had been on the stage, and he knew what was going on... He was real helpful to me. Eddie knew the pulse on the street, he knew the pulse of the ghettos of Chicago and Detroit, and I didn't know jack shit about that..."</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span>Eddie Floyd and Cropper had been working on a new song for a whole week, <span style="font-weight: bold;">634-5789</span>, before Wilson arrived back in Memphis on 19th December. After hearing a tape, a clearly tense and nervous Pickett let fly: <span style="font-style: italic;">"This is it? This is</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> my hit tune? It's a piece of shit!"</span> Eddie Floyd had to be prised off his old buddy! But apparently, it had been no different in the old days with The Falcons...<br /><br />Later on that day, Wilson had calmed down, and so had Eddie, so they went over to Pickett's hotel to write something else. Eddie and Steve noticed a Coca-Cola billboard, with the slogan <span style="font-style: italic;">'Ninety-Nine And A Half Won't Do.'</span> Recalling the gospel tune and the freedom song, and with Eddie suggesting they add that stop-start behind-the-beat jerk feel, soon Pickett had another classic in the can, so to speak!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RxoElxe1DKI/AAAAAAAAAHs/V-QeFHY73OI/s1600-h/wilson+pickett,+jimmy+johnson,+clarence+carter+at+FAME.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RxoElxe1DKI/AAAAAAAAAHs/V-QeFHY73OI/s200/wilson+pickett,+jimmy+johnson,+clarence+carter+at+FAME.jpg" alt="Wilson Pickett at FAME with Jimmy Johnson and Clarence Carter" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5123412573071674530" border="0" /></a>The songwriting and recording relationship was sometimes explosive but always professional, and could have produced even more hits, had not Jim Stewart become uncomfortable with the amount of studio time devoted to an Atlantic artist. Citing Pickett's 'drunkenness' (an assertion that Cropper and others hotly dispute, citing Pickett's sober dedication to every session), Stewart packed Pickett and Jerry Wexler back to New York. It was time for them to try to find similar magic at FAME Studios...<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:130%;">The Alabama Christian Movement Choir - 99 1/2 Won't Do</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Wilson Pickett - Ninety-Nine And A Half (Won't Do)</span><br /></span><br /><a href="http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Read A Letter From A Birmingham Jail here...</span></a><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.folkways.si.edu/search/AlbumDetails.aspx?ID=2269"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RxoLkhe1DMI/AAAAAAAAAH8/SXXouiZ4KRw/s200/voices+CD.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5123420248178232514" border="0" /></a><span style="font-weight: bold;">Information from <span style="font-size:130%;">Soulsville: USA</span> by Rob Bowman, <span style="font-size:130%;">Nowhere To Run</span> by Gerry Hershey, and liner notes of <a href="http://www.folkways.si.edu/search/AlbumDetails.aspx?ID=2269"><span style="font-size:130%;">Voices Of The Civil Rights Movement: Black American Freedom Songs 1960-1966</span></a> by Bernice Johnson Reagon and Phyllis May. <span style="font-size:130%;">Wilson Fallin's</span> article about the <span style="font-size:130%;">ACMHR</span> and the role of women in the organisation can be found <a href="http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-138811966.html">here</a>. Visit the <a href="http://www.bcri.org/resource_gallery/interview_segments/index.htm"><span style="font-size:130%;">Birmingham Civil Rights Institute</span></a> to read more and to study eye-witness accounts of events from 1956-1963. Quote from <span style="font-size:130%;">Cleopatra Kennedy</span> from an <a href="http://www.baylormag.com/story.php?story=004480">interview for Baylor University</a> magazine.<br /></span>Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26229591.post-13738799264271920992007-10-20T16:51:00.000+00:002008-12-11T12:14:23.575+00:00Return Of The Groove Merchant: Lou Pride Is Back!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RxokJRe1DPI/AAAAAAAAAIU/mTwyTlTYWFk/s1600-h/Lou_Pride_A5.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_SGhxjNmHuUU/RxokJRe1DPI/AAAAAAAAAIU/mTwyTlTYWFk/s320/Lou_Pride_A5.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5123447267817491698" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:100%;"><i><span style=";font-family:&quot;;" lang="EN-GB">I</span></i></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><i><span style=";font-family:&quot;;" lang="EN-GB"> am in a groove this week, and the posts keep coming...</span></i></span><span style=";font-family:&quot;;font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" ><br /></span><span style=";font-family:&quot;;font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" ><br />Great news for soul fans! The Groove Merchant, <b>Lou Pride</b>, is back in concert in the </span><span style="font-size:100%;"><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style=";font-family:&quot;;" lang="EN-GB">UK</span></st1:place></st1:country-region></span><span style=";font-family:&quot;;font-size:100%;" lang="EN-GB" > this month. Sadly he isn't coming my way again to Brighton, but he will be at the following venues:<br /><br /><b>Oct 24 Canterbury Festival Club (St Alphege's Church) 01227 378188<br />Oct 25 London 100 Club 0208 460 6941<br />Oct 26 Stamford Arts Centre 01780 763203<br />Oct 27 Penrith Playhouse 01228 409795<br />Oct 28 Newcastle, The Cluny 0191 230 4474</b><br /><br />Thanks to <b>Harry Lang</b> on the <a href="http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/southernsoul/"><b>Yahoo Southern Soul Forum</b></a> for tipping us all off to this!</span>Rob Whatmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04451974312809323440noreply@blogger.com0